活
Symbols Spirit
vitality
力
ㄏㄨㄛˊ ㄌㄧˋ huó lì
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.
Being visibly alive - energy, spring, the look of someone in good health. Chinese needs two characters to say it properly.
Before you commit
Choose with care活 alone will not read as vitality. It means alive, and in 幹活 it means doing work - a reader is as likely to think of labour.
Pairs well with活力 is the safe choice; 生機 is vitality in the sense of a living system thriving. Both are read without effort.
At small sizes活 is nine strokes and 力 is two. The pair is light and open and stays clear when reduced.
Meaning
Vitality, vigour, energy.
The everyday word, applied to people, to cities and to brands alike.
Other characters for “vitality”
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