信
Symbols Memory
keepsake
物
ㄒㄧㄣˋ ㄨˋ xìn wù
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
Same in both
Layout
Rubbing mode: white on black, as a stone rubbing. The download is unaffected.
A small object kept because of who gave it. Chinese names this by the object's purpose rather than with any single character.
Before you commit
Choose with care紀念品 is what you buy at an airport. 信物 is what you are given by someone who meant it - choose by which one you actually mean.
At small sizes信物 is nine strokes beside eight, an even and open pair. It stays legible at small size and on a curve.
Cultural noteIn old stories a 信物 is half of a matched pair, a jade or a ring split in two, so that the halves prove each other years later.
Meaning
A token given as a pledge, often between lovers; proof of a promise.
The traditional word for the object handed over when something is sworn.
Other characters for “keepsake”
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