health

健

ㄐㄧㄢˋ jiàn

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

Being well in body and mind. Chinese builds the word from two characters, one for bodily vigour and one for ease and safety.

Before you commit

Choose with care健 on its own reads as an adjective, strong or fit, and is more often seen in gym and fitness words than as a noun for health.

Pairs well with健康 is the complete word and reads naturally. A single 健 will look to a Chinese eye like half a word.

At small sizesEleven strokes, tall and narrow. Suits a vertical placement such as a spine or forearm better than a wide one.

Meaning

Healthy, strong, robust; vigorous in body.

The active half of health - fit and capable rather than merely not ill.

Other characters for “health”

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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