breakthrough

突

破

ㄊㄨˊ ㄆㄛˋ tú pò · mainland reads tū pò

Two versions of the same picture, and both are free with no account and no watermark. The first has no background at all, which is the one to send your artist — but a phone or computer photo viewer set to dark will show black strokes on dark grey and it can look like nothing downloaded. If that happens, use the second one: identical characters on a plain white background. Either way you get the characters on their own — the square and the faint guide lines you see above are not in the file. Each character is 1000px, so a two-character download is 2000×1000, and the script and layout are the ones you picked.

Script

Characters

Layout

Getting past the barrier that had been stopping you. Chinese says it as charging and breaking.

Before you commit

Choose with care破 alone is mostly negative. It means broken, torn or shabby at least as often as it means to break through - 破 clothes are rags.

Pairs well with突破 for the breakthrough itself, 破繭 for breaking out of the cocoon, which reads well for personal change.

At small sizesNineteen strokes across the pair. 突 is open, 破 is denser on the left; both survive moderate sizes but not tiny ones.

Meaning

A breakthrough; to break through a limit, a line or a deadlock.

Used of records, sieges, negotiations and research alike.

Other characters for “breakthrough”

What to do next

Pick the script and layout you want above, download the PNG, and send that file to your artist. Ask them to work from the file rather than redrawing the character freehand — that is where strokes go missing.

Related concepts