進
Symbols Life
progress
ㄐㄧㄣˋ jìn
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.
Moving forward, in skill, in a project or in life. Chinese ties this directly to the verb for entering and advancing.
Before you commit
Choose with care進 alone most often reads as enter or go in - 進來 means come in. The progress sense needs 進步 to be unmistakable.
Pairs well with進步 for ordinary improvement, 精進 for diligent refinement of a skill, which carries a Buddhist flavour of sustained effort.
At small sizesTwelve strokes with the long walking radical along the base. That sweep needs horizontal space and distorts on tight curves.
Meaning
To advance, enter, move forward; to make progress.
The core forward-motion character, in progress, entering and importing alike.
Other characters for “progress”
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