究
Symbols Mind
inquiry
ㄐㄧㄡ jiū
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.
Looking into something properly - a sustained investigation rather than a single question.
Before you commit
Choose with care究 almost never stands alone in modern Chinese. Readers know it well, but by itself it looks like half of 研究 rather than a word.
Pairs well with研究 for research, 探究 for open enquiry, 究竟 for what is actually the case. Each reads more complete than 究 alone.
At small sizesSeven strokes, an open top over a single hook. One of the lighter characters here and reliable at small scale.
Meaning
To investigate to the bottom; to get to the root of a matter.
The character inside 研究, research, and 追根究柢, chasing a thing to its roots.
Other characters for “inquiry”
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