發
Symbols Mind
invention
明
ㄈㄚ ㄇㄧㄥˊ fā míng
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.
Bringing a new thing into existence. The Chinese word joins issuing forth with making bright.
Before you commit
Choose with careNo single character means invention. 發 alone means to send out or to grow and 明 alone means bright; neither hints at inventing.
JapaneseJapanese uses 発明 with the same meaning, written with the simplified 発. The traditional 發 marks this version as Chinese.
At small sizesTwenty strokes across the pair, with 發 crowded at the top. It needs real size to stay legible.
Meaning
Invention; to invent.
The ordinary word for inventing anything, from gunpowder to a new excuse.
Other characters for “invention”
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