exploration

探

ㄊㄢˋ tàn

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

Reaching into the unknown to find out what is there - physically, or as inquiry.

Before you commit

Choose with care探 is a verb and slightly clinical - it also means to visit a patient and to spy. Alone it reads as an action, not a spirit of exploration.

Pairs well with探索 for exploring in general, 探險 if you mean going into dangerous unknown places.

At small sizesEleven strokes with a hand radical on the left. Reasonably clean small, though the lower right can crowd.

Meaning

To probe, explore, investigate; to reach in and feel for something.

The hand reaching into the unseen - it works for caves and for questions alike.

Other characters for “exploration”

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