安
Symbols Emotions
peace
ㄢ ān
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.
Quiet and safety — Chinese distinguishes peace between nations from the peace inside a person.
Before you commit
Choose with careIf you mean inner peace, do not use 和平 — that is peace between countries. 安寧 or 平靜 is the inner sense, and 安 alone carries it well.
Pairs well with平安 for safe and sound, 安寧 for tranquillity, 心安 for a mind at rest.
Cultural noteTraditionally explained as a woman beneath a roof: in the old division of labour, where the man’s place was outside and the woman’s within, a household with someone keeping it is a household at ease. That reading is very old and widely repeated, but it is an explanation laid over the shape rather than a settled account of where the character came from.
At small sizes安 is six strokes — the 宀 radical with 女 under it. It holds up at almost any size and on curved skin, and is one of the safest single characters here.
Meaning
Safe, settled, at peace; free from disturbance.
The everyday character for being all right — in 平安, 安心 and countless names.
Other characters for “peace”
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