自
Symbols Nature
nature
然
ㄗˋ ㄖㄢˊ zì rán
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.
Nature in the sense of the way things are on their own, without being forced.
Before you commit
Choose with care自然 is a Daoist idea about things being self-so. It does not mean forests and wildlife, which are 大自然 or 野外.
At small sizesSix strokes beside twelve. The second character is much denser, so match their heights rather than their widths.
Cultural noteThe line about people following earth, earth following heaven, and the way following what is self-so, is where this word gets its weight.
Meaning
Nature; also natural, unforced, of course.
Literally self-so; the thing being as it is by itself.
Other characters for “nature”
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