谷
Symbols Nature
valley
ㄍㄨˇ gǔ
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.
A valley between hills, and the idea of low ground that receives whatever flows down.
Before you commit
Choose with careIn simplified Chinese 谷 also serves as the character for grain, so mainland readers may read it as cereal rather than valley.
At small sizesSeven strokes, symmetrical and open. One of the better small choices.
Cultural noteThe Daoist image of the valley spirit, low and empty and therefore receptive, sits behind this character for many readers.
Meaning
Valley, ravine; the low ground between mountains.
The base character, present in most valley words.
Other characters for “valley”
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