念
Symbols Memory
memento
ㄋㄧㄢˋ niàn
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.
Something kept to hold on to a person or a moment. Chinese usually names the act of remembering rather than the object itself.
Before you commit
Choose with care念 is abstract. It is a thought, not a thing, and in Buddhist use it means a single instant of mind - nobody will read it as a souvenir.
JapaneseRead nen in Japanese, a feeling or attention fixed on something. Legible there, with a slightly heavier and more willed sense.
At small sizesEight strokes with 心 sitting underneath. Simple and stable, and the heart component holds its shape on curved skin.
Meaning
To think of; to keep someone in mind. The thought that keeps returning.
The character every Chinese word for remembrance is built on.
Other characters for “memento”
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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