靈
Symbols Mind
inspiration
感
ㄌㄧㄥˊ ㄍㄢˇ líng gǎn
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.
The idea that arrives rather than being worked out. Chinese names it with a word about spirit and has no single character for it.
Before you commit
Choose with care靈 by itself means spirit, soul or the supernatural, and 靈感 originally implied contact with something outside yourself. Do not shorten it to 靈.
JapaneseJapanese uses 霊感 for psychic sensitivity rather than for creative inspiration. The traditional pair reads oddly there.
At small sizes靈感 is twenty-four strokes beside thirteen. 靈 is one of the densest common characters and will not survive small.
Meaning
Inspiration; the sudden arrival of an idea.
The exact word, used by writers, designers and engineers alike.
Other characters for “inspiration”
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