Chinese seal generator
A Chinese seal, or chop (印章), is the red stamp that signs a painting or a letter. This tool sets your Chinese name in a genuine seal-script typeface, so every character is a correct historical form, in the right reading order (top to bottom, right to left). You get four seals: intaglio (white characters on red), relief (red lines on white), a round seal and a freeform pebble-shaped one, each as a transparent PNG and a vector you can engrave from.
Already have a Chinese name?
Choose how it is written
Pick a collection and we write in it; the first piece is written now, free. The pictures below are samples of 诸葛亮 Zhuge Liang. Yours carry your own characters.
Write in this collection
The first piece is written now in your own characters, free. Unlock the rest when you like it.
Simplified is standard in mainland China; traditional in Hong Kong, Taiwan and most tattoo studios. The seals use seal script, which predates the split.
What a Chinese seal is for
A Chinese seal (印章, yìnzhāng) is a carved stamp, usually stone, pressed into red cinnabar paste (印泥, yìnní) to sign a painting, a piece of calligraphy, a letter or a book. For most of Chinese history it did the work a signature does in the West, and painters still finish a work with one.
There are two kinds. A name seal (名章, míngzhāng) carries the owner’s name and says who made the work. A leisure seal (闲章, xiánzhāng) carries a short phrase, a motto or the name of a studio, and is chosen for mood. This tool makes name seals: the characters are your Chinese name and nothing else.
Why the characters look different
Seals are cut in seal script (篆书, zhuànshū), the script standardised under the Qin dynasty around 220 BC. It is older than the brush reforms that gave characters their modern shapes, so many familiar components are drawn another way: the water radical is a wavy line, and a hand is a little claw. Seal script also predates the split between simplified and traditional characters, so the same seal serves either. If you want to see the brush scripts that came after, the calligraphy generator writes your name in four of them.
Red-character and white-character seals
Every square seal is cut one of two ways, and the difference is which part of the stone prints red.
| Red-character seal | White-character seal | |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 朱文 | 白文 |
| Pinyin | zhūwén | báiwén |
| How it is cut | relief: the ground is cut away, the strokes stand up | intaglio: the strokes are cut into the stone |
| What it prints | red lines on white paper, inside a red border | white lines on a solid red square |
| How it reads | light and open | heavy and bold, visible from across a room |
| Usual place | below a white seal, or for a studio or art name | the main name seal under the signature |
The seal pack gives you both, plus a round seal and a freeform pebble-shaped one, so you can choose by eye.
Sizes and where a seal goes
A name seal for a painting or calligraphy is usually between one and three centimetres square, and no wider than the characters of the signature above it. It goes directly below the signature (落款, luòkuǎn), at the lower left of a horizontal work or at the foot of the inscription column. When a painter uses two, the white-character name seal sits above a red-character seal. A leisure seal can open a work at the top right, or fill an empty corner. On a letter or a card, press the seal just after your signed name; in a book, it goes on the title page.
Two seals, worked through
A Chinese seal is read in columns: the right column first, top to bottom, then the left. Four characters fit a square best, so short names are filled out with the words for “seal”.
A three-character name, one of the names the generator proposed for Emma Watson: 安 (ān) peace, a Hundred Family Surname that echoes Emma; 以 (yǐ) by means of; 宁 (níng) calm. The seal adds 印 (yìn), seal, as the fourth character. The right column reads 安以, the left 宁印. In seal script 安 is still a woman under a roof, while 以 becomes a curled hook few modern readers would guess.
A two-character name, surname 林 (lín) forest and given name 远 (yuǎn) far. Two characters alone would leave a tall, thin seal, so it takes 之印 (zhī yìn), “the seal of”, and becomes “the seal of Lín Yuǎn”. The right column reads 林远, the left 之印.
Names of four characters are cut as they are. A transliteration such as 艾玛·沃森 has too many characters and a dot that cannot go on a seal, which is one more reason to start from a real name; our guide to how Chinese names work explains the shape.
How it works
Enter your name and choose a Chinese name, or type the one you have.
Pick the Seal collection. The first seal is set now, free.
Unlock the pack for all four seals as PNG and vector, ready for printing or engraving.
Questions
What is a Chinese seal called?
A Chinese seal is called 印章 (yìnzhāng), and in English it is often called a chop or a name stamp. It is a carved stone, wood or metal stamp pressed into red cinnabar paste to sign paintings, calligraphy, letters and books. A seal that carries a person's name is a name seal, 名章 (míngzhāng).
Are the seal characters correct?
Yes. The seals are typeset from a seal-script typeface, not drawn by an image model, so every character is a real historical seal-script form. The reading order follows the tradition: right column first, top to bottom. The name itself is proposed within our naming rules and scored by a second, independent model.
Can I have a real seal carved from this?
Yes. The vector SVG is what a seal carver or laser engraver works from, and the transparent PNG is a full-size reference. Tell the carver whether you want the white-character or red-character version, and the size in centimetres; between one and three is usual for a name seal.
What is the difference between 朱文 and 白文?
朱文 (zhūwén), the red-character seal, is cut in relief: the strokes stand up and print as red lines on white. 白文 (báiwén), the white-character seal, is cut in intaglio: the strokes are cut into the stone and print white on a solid red square. Painters often use one of each.
Why does my seal have 印 or 之印 added to the name?
Seals are composed in a square of four characters, so shorter names are filled out with the word for seal. A three-character name takes 印 (yìn), seal; a two-character name takes 之印 (zhī yìn), the seal of. This is how Chinese name seals are traditionally cut.
Why doesn't seal script look like normal Chinese characters?
Seal script is the form standardised under the Qin dynasty around 220 BC, before brush writing reshaped characters into their modern forms. Many components are drawn differently, so some characters are hard for modern readers to recognise. It also predates simplified and traditional characters, so one seal works for both.
How do you read a Chinese seal?
A Chinese seal is read in vertical columns, starting with the right-hand column, top to bottom, then moving to the column on its left. A four-character seal is two columns of two. A round seal follows the same order inside its square text block.
Where do you put a seal on a painting?
A name seal goes directly below the artist's signature, usually at the lower left of a horizontal painting or calligraphy. It should be no wider than the characters of the signature. Leisure seals carrying a phrase can open the work at the top right or balance an empty corner.
What is in the seal pack and how much does it cost?
The seal pack costs $7.90 and contains four seals of your Chinese name: white-character, red-character, round and freeform. Each comes as a transparent PNG and a vector file for printing or engraving. The first seal is set free so you can see it before you pay.
Read more
- How Chinese names work: surname first, then one or two charactersA Chinese name is a one-character family name followed by a given name of one or two characters, each with a meaning. Which part is the first name, how the parts fit, how they are spoken and written, and what makes a name sound real.