智
Symbols Virtues
wisdom
ㄓˋ zhì
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.
Knowing how to judge and act, not simply knowing facts.
Before you commit
Choose with care智 can also mean merely clever or smart. If you want wisdom as depth rather than wit, 慧 or the pair 智慧 is safer.
JapaneseShared with Japanese, read chi. It is common in Japanese given names, so it may be read as a name.
At small sizesTwelve strokes over a 日 base. The lower box fills in on small or heavily inked work.
Meaning
Wisdom, intelligence, sound judgement.
One of the classical Confucian virtues; practical wisdom rather than book learning.
Other characters for “wisdom”
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