fidelity

忠

ㄓㄨㄥ zhōng

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

Keeping faith with a person or a cause even when nothing forces you to.

Before you commit

Choose with care忠 historically points upwards, to a ruler, a country or an employer. Used of a romantic partner it can read faintly hierarchical, which is why couples usually choose 忠貞 or simply 愛.

At small sizesEight strokes and well balanced. It holds its shape small and on curved skin.

Cultural note忠 is bound up with service to a ruler or a state - the phrase everyone knows is 精忠報國, said to have been tattooed on 岳飛's back - so it carries a patriotic colour some people do not intend.

Meaning

Loyal, faithful; wholehearted towards the person or thing you serve.

心 under 中, with 中 supplying the sound. Traditionally explained as loyalty at the middle of you rather than at the edge.

Other characters for “fidelity”

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.

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