<h2>Handwriting</h2>

<p><strong>TL;DR</strong>: Handwriting is much harder than printed text.  The first step is to improve the image quality.  Afterwards we can input the text into OCR software.</p>

<p>This is on a door where I'm staying.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/BQqjc2cr/74741088.jpg"></p>

<p>If we put it directly into <a href="https://www.onlineocr.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Online OCR</a>, it says:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>No recognized text !</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The image quality is too poor.</p>

<h3>Step 1: Improve the image quality.</h3>

<p>We can open up Paint (actually I use <a href="https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pinta</a>) and go over the Chinese in black.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/90BrHfVg/74741088-2.jpg"></p>

<p><strong>Method 1</strong>: change the brightness and contrast:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/1zMCXGBy/74741088-2.jpg"></p>

<p><strong>Method 2</strong>: select only the black text (e.g. <a href="https://www.gimp.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GIMP</a> has Tools/Selection Tools/By Color Select):</p>

<p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/DzjqXBXy/74741088-3.jpg"></p>

<h3>Step 2: Input into OCR software.</h3>

<p>OCR software struggles with handwriting, so we may need to try a few times.  If we input the second image above into <a href="https://www.onlineocr.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Online OCR</a>, we obtain:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>请各位出入<br>
  头好蓝色水门 </p>
</blockquote>

<p>It made two mistakes:</p>

<ul>
<li>the original says <a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%85%B3%E5%A5%BD" rel="nofollow noreferrer">关好</a> (close) and not 头好 (meaningless);</li>
<li>the original says <a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E6%9C%A8%E9%97%A8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">木门</a> (timber door) and not <a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E6%B0%B4%E9%97%A8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">水门</a> (water gate).</li>
</ul>

<p>So it's not perfect.</p>

<p>However, inputting the third image into <a href="http://online.easyscreenocr.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">EasyScreenOCR</a> gives:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>请各位出入<br>
  关好益包木门</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It also made two errors:</p>

<ul>
<li>the original says <a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E8%93%9D%E8%89%B2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">蓝色</a> (blue) and not 益包 (meaningless).</li>
</ul>

<h3>Step 3: Compare the outputs; fix bugs.</h3>

<p>We can compare these two transcriptions.  The writing is stuck on the inside of a blue wooden door, so...</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%85%B3" rel="nofollow noreferrer">关</a> (to close) makes sense and not 头 (head);</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E8%93%9D%E8%89%B2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">蓝色</a> (blue) makes sense;</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E6%9C%A8%E9%97%A8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">木门</a> (timber door) makes sense.</li>
</ul>

<p>So we can fix the bugs to obtain:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>请各位出入<br>
  关好蓝色木门</p>
</blockquote>

<p>(It may be useful here to <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36150/8099">search by radical</a> to identify troublesome characters.)</p>

<h3>Step 4: Translate.</h3>

<p>Now we put this into <a href="https://translate.google.cn/#view=home&amp;op=translate&amp;sl=zh-CN&amp;tl=en&amp;text=%E8%AF%B7%E5%90%84%E4%BD%8D%E5%87%BA%E5%85%A5%20%20%E5%85%B3%E5%A5%BD%E8%93%9D%E8%89%B2%E6%9C%A8%E9%97%A8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google Translate</a> to give:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Please come in and close the blue wooden door</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Actually, it's not a very good translation (<a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%87%BA%E5%85%A5" rel="nofollow noreferrer">出入</a> means "come in and go out").  We can break this up a bit further using <a href="https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=%E8%AF%B7%E5%90%84%E4%BD%8D%E5%87%BA%E5%85%A5%EF%BC%8C%E5%85%B3%E5%A5%BD%E8%93%9D%E8%89%B2%E6%9C%A8%E9%97%A8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Yabla</a>:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/fyJZbThR/Screenshot-2019-12-16-Definition-Mandarin-Chinese-P.png"></p>

<p>Thus it realistically means something like:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Please, when coming in or going out, close the blue wooden door.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T05:00:06.363Z
What's TL;DR? Is it "too long didn't read"?
dan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T05:08:30.023Z
Yes.  It's basically an Internet way of saying "summary".
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T05:13:43.157Z
How does "too long didn't read" become "summary"? I don't see how it works.
dan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T05:20:40.643Z
I believe it started off as an insult to prohibitively long posts (to indicate "I don't have time to read that"), then people started commenting "TL;DR: [summary]" on other people's lengthy posts to save the future reader's time.  Then people started including a "[TL;DR](https://www.dictionary.com/e/acronyms/tldr/)" in their own posts.
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T04:12:04.263Z
2019-12-16T07:56:47.917Z
2019-12-16T07:56:47.917Z
Becky 李蓓
<h2>Searching characters by their constituent components</h2>
<p><strong>TL;DR</strong>: We can find characters by inputting some or all of their constituent components.</p>
<p><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb" rel="nofollow noreferrer">小學堂</a> offers a component-searching interface, so that if you manage to recognise some components of a character but not the entire character, you can input those components to get a matching character which contains them.</p>
<p>Let's say that you come across the following character, and you don't recognise it:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Pq6QM.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Pq6QM.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<h3>Step 1. Identify as many parts of the character as possible.</h3>
<p>Let's say that you've recognised 2「木」and a「彡」</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Wrv8E.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Wrv8E.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<h3>Step 2. Input those components at <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb</a></h3>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/MFyA3.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/MFyA3.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<h3>Step 3. Click 確定送出 to get a list of matching characters.</h3>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/mzjot.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/mzjot.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>You should see the following if you did this step correctly:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/hz9Wf.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/hz9Wf.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Step 4. After you've found the correct character, click the character (not the number underneath it) to bring up a pop-up box.</h3>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/zMr6o.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/zMr6o.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>You should see the following box pop up if you did this step correctly:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/z4QUs.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/z4QUs.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Step 5. The box under 瀏覽器 contains a text character. You can select and copy the character, then look up the character under your favourite dictionary.</h3>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/62t6p.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/62t6p.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-18T06:59:03.763Z
Great! It’d also be great to update the original question linking these answers. (I can’t do this easily right now.)
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-18T07:00:13.783Z
@Becky李蓓 oh, I see. I'll do it right now
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-18T06:22:39.640Z
2019-12-18T06:22:39.640Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
dROOOze
<h2><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition" rel="nofollow noreferrer">OCR</a>: Optical Character Recognition</h2>
<p><strong>TL;DR</strong>: Input a photo of the text into OCR software (e.g. <a href="https://www.onlineocr.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Online OCR</a>), then input the output into some translation software.  This method requires a sufficiently high quality image for OCR to work.  (It doesn't work well for handwriting, or top-to-bottom writing.)</p>
<p>Consider using these websites for OCR:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://translate.yandex.com/ocr" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Yandex</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ocr.space/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">OCR.space</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Let's begin with a real example: a funny photo I took in Tianjin:</p>
<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/htns2r1P/426973464.jpg">
<p>So... <em>what does this say?</em></p>
<h3>Step 1: Use Chinese OCR to get the plaintext Chinese.</h3>
<p>The best software for doing this changes over time.  I Googled <code>Chinese OCR</code> and stumbled upon <a href="https://www.onlineocr.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Online OCR</a>.  Another possibility is the Copyfish OCR browser extension (<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/copyfish-%F0%9F%90%9F-free-ocr-soft/eenjdnjldapjajjofmldgmkjaienebbj" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Chrome</a>; <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/copyfish-ocr-software/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Firefox</a>).  I understand both <a href="https://hanpingchinese.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Hanping Chinese</a> and <a href="https://www.pleco.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pleco</a> are mobile options.</p>
<p>After uploading the image and selecting <em>Chinese Simplified</em>, we get:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>这块位置we've alreadyetepped enthis area 我们已经帮您踩过了！</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Step 2: Input the plaintext Chinese into translation software.</h3>
<p>For example, <a href="https://translate.google.cn/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google Translate</a> gives:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>这块位置<br />
This location</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>我们已经帮您踩过了！<br />
We've helped you step over!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For the words that seem imprecisely translated, we can look them up in a dictionary, e.g. <a href="http://youdao.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">YouDao</a> or <a href="http://dict.cn/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Dict.cn</a>, or even just copy/paste the whole thing into <a href="https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Yabla</a>.</p>
<h3>Step 3: Still don't know?  Ask on Chinese.SE showing what you've done.</h3>
<p>Which is what I did for this image: <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/36043/what-does-%e6%88%91%e4%bb%ac%e5%b7%b2%e7%bb%8f%e5%b8%ae%e6%82%a8%e8%b8%a9%e8%bf%87%e4%ba%86-mean-in-this-peculiarly-translated-escalator-sticker">What does 我们已经帮您踩过了 mean in this peculiarly translated escalator sticker?</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T04:10:40.530Z
2022-06-27T22:38:05.480Z
2022-06-27T22:38:05.480Z
Becky 李蓓
<h2>Drawing characters by hand</h2>
<p><strong>TL;DR</strong>: We can obtain plaintext by manually drawing characters one-by-one using various software.</p>
<h3>Drawing on your phone</h3>
<p>If your phone has Chinese input installed, you likely can already do this.  E.g., here I'm entering in my name into Pleco:</p>
<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/L4V5wsHK/839953035.jpg">
<h3><a href="https://www.mdbg.net/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MDBG Online Dictionary</a></h3>
<p>MDBG will accept hand drawn characters, but it does care about stroke order. Click on the &quot;brush&quot; icon next to the search box:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/vDwCy.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/vDwCy.png" alt="mdbg.net stroke input" /></a></p>
<h3>Random websites</h3>
<p>If you Google <code>draw characters chinese</code> there's lots of software in which you can draw characters by hand.  It'll change over time, and there's sometimes browser issues, etc.  So one random example is <a href="https://www.qhanzi.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">qhanzi.com</a>:</p>
<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/ZRcpKxh4/Screenshot-2019-12-16-Handwritten-Chinese-input.png">
<h3>Google Translate</h3>
<p>It's possible to draw characters using <a href="https://translate.google.cn/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google Translate</a> by clicking the pencil icon:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/fSava.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/fSava.png" alt="hand-drawn 你 inputted into Google Translate" /></a></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T05:04:50.570Z
2022-06-27T22:41:32.787Z
2022-06-27T22:41:32.787Z
Becky 李蓓
<h2>Extended character searching by their constituent components: Small seal script, Chu silk and bamboo slip characters, bronze inscription characters, or oracle bone characters</h2>
<p>TL;DR: Using approximately same sequence of steps as the <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36182/18338">answer titled <strong>Searching characters by their constituent components</strong></a>, we can search for other varieties of characters, including <strong>small seal forms</strong> (小篆), <strong>Chu silk and bamboo slip characters</strong> (楚系簡帛文字), <strong>bronze inscription forms</strong> (金文), and <strong>oracle bone forms</strong> (甲骨文).</p>
<p>We'll use the same example in <strong>small seal script</strong>.</p>
<h3>Step 1. Identify as many parts of the character as possible.</h3>
<p>Let's say that you've recognised 2「木」and a「彡」.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/9mGvM.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/9mGvM.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<h3>Step 2. Go to <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb</a>, and click the desired script form. In this example, we're going to look at <em>small seal script</em>, so we'll click 小篆.</h3>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Klgd9.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Klgd9.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>You should see an extended box pop up if you did this step correctly:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/kRNlQ.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/kRNlQ.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<hr />
<p>Note: The Chu silk and bamboo slip characters (楚系簡帛文字) option is hidden under <em>Warring States characters</em> (戰國文字).</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/oGYSf.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/oGYSf.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Step 3. Input the identified components.</h3>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/cTQI6.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/cTQI6.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<h3>Step 4. Click 確定送出 to get a list of matching characters.</h3>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/PhmuE.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/PhmuE.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>You should see the following if you did this step correctly.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/tmyUN.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tmyUN.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Step 5. After you've found the correct character, click the character (not the number underneath it) to bring up a pop-up box.</h3>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/73Tyn.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/73Tyn.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>You should see the following box pop up if you did this step correctly.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/g6Lbu.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/g6Lbu.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Step 6. The box under 瀏覽器 in the row 楷書 contains a text character. You can select and copy the character, then look up the character under your favourite dictionary.</h3>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ghPVT.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ghPVT.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-18T06:54:22.840Z
2019-12-18T07:07:35.093Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
dROOOze
<h2>Search by radical</h2>

<p><strong>TL;DR</strong>: Chinese characters break down into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_%28Chinese_characters%29" rel="nofollow noreferrer">radicals</a>, so we can identify Chinese characters by searching via radicals.  This requires basic familiarity with Chinese radicals.</p>

<h3>Step 1: Understanding radicals</h3>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_%28Chinese_characters%29" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a> and <a href="https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/radicals.php" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Yellowbridge</a> list the Chinese radicals.  Chinese characters are written using these radicals.</p>

<p>Chinese characters are normally written <strong><em>top-left to bottom-right</em></strong>.  We can search for a particular character by identifying its first radical.</p>

<h3>Step 2: Searching via radicals</h3>

<p>To actually do this, there‘s e.g. <a href="https://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html?r=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Search by Radical</a> or <a href="https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=radicals" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Radical/Strokes Lookup</a>.  We take the character, e.g.</p>

<blockquote>
  <h2>课</h2>
</blockquote>

<p>and identify its first radical.  In this case it is the left-most radical (<em>remember</em>: top-left to bottom-right):</p>

<blockquote>
  <h2>讠</h2>
</blockquote>

<p>(It's listed as a variant of 149. 言.)</p>

<p>Then we find this radical, and click the link:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/cJLbYnYm/Screenshot-2019-12-16-Search-by-Radical-Chinese-Character-Dict.png"></p>

<p>The following page lists most characters starting with that radical.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/T1bd6S3p/Screenshot-2019-12-16-Radical-Chinese-Character-Dictiona.png"></p>

<p>It's easier to locate if you have a rough idea of the number of strokes.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T07:55:15.223Z
2019-12-16T07:55:15.223Z
Becky 李蓓
<p>I'm Chinese.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>To help old people who can't use Pinyin, most native cellphone keyboard software includes OCR. Even you can use voice input. eg: srf.xunfei.cn pinyin.sogou.com</p></li>
<li><p>Some Chinese meme such as you asked "我们已经帮您踩过了" mean，I recommend you use native search website Baidu.</p></li>
<li><p>Make some Chinese friends to help you.</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T12:16:04.053Z
2019-12-16T13:40:22.817Z
2019-12-16T13:40:22.817Z
MrPasserby
<h2>Commonly encountered Chinese characters</h2>
<p>There are a small number of characters which are often used for decorations, etc.:</p>
<h3><a href="http://youdao.com/w/eng/%E7%A6%8F/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">福</a> (fú) = prosperity; good fortune</h3>
<p>Often <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2400/why-%E7%A6%8F-is-often-used-upside-down">hung upside down</a> as a decoration.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28634/what-do-these-two-characters-on-cufflinks-signify-characters-identified-%E7%A6%8F-and">What do these two characters on cufflinks signify? (Characters identified: 福 and 壽/夀)</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/48923/does-anyone-know-what-this-says-and-in-what-language">Does anyone know what this says and in what language?</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%AF%BF" rel="nofollow noreferrer">寿 / 壽</a> (shòu) = longevity</h3>
<p>This is written with <a href="http://chardb.iis.sinica.edu.tw/meancompare/58FD/5900" rel="nofollow noreferrer">multiple variants</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2511/does-anyone-know-what-is-the-characters-means-%e4%b8%81%e8%b2%a1%e8%b2%b4%e5%af%bf">Does anyone know what is the characters means (丁財貴寿)?</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/3568/is-the-meaning-of-this-symbol-longevity">Is the meaning of this symbol &quot;longevity&quot;?</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28634/what-do-these-two-characters-on-cufflinks-signify-characters-identified-%E7%A6%8F-and">What do these two characters on cufflinks signify? (Characters identified: 福 and 壽/夀)</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/36954/what-do-these-two-single-character-calligraphic-artworks-mean-characters-ident">What do these two single-character calligraphic artworks mean? (Characters identified: 忍, 壽)</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>(Together 福禄寿 / 福祿壽 form the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanxing_(deities)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sanxing</a>.)</p>
<h3><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%9B%8D" rel="nofollow noreferrer">囍</a> (xǐ) = double happiness (made of two <a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%96%9C" rel="nofollow noreferrer">喜</a> (xǐ) = happiness)</h3>
<p>A decoration typically seen at Chinese weddings.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/30286/translate-the-characters-in-this-sign/30287#30287">Translate the characters in this sign</a></li>
</ul>
<h3><a href="http://youdao.com/w/eng/%E5%88%B6" rel="nofollow noreferrer">制 / 製</a> (zhì) = manufactured</h3>
<p>This is often found as the last character (bottom-left) on stamps on teapots, etc.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1395/deciphering-a-seal-on-the-bottom-of-a-buddha-figure-characters-identified-%e4%b9%be%e9%9a%86%e5%be%a1%e8%a3%bd">Deciphering a seal on the bottom of a Buddha figure (Characters identified: 乾隆御製)</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/35716/what-does-this-mark-mean-characters-identified-%e5%91%a8%e6%a1%82%e7%8f%8d%e5%88%b6">What does this mark mean? (Characters identified: 周桂珍制)</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/35078/what-s-the-characters-on-this-seal-of-the-vase-characters-identified-%e6%99%af%e5%be%b7%e9%8e%ae%e8%a3%bd">What’s the characters on this seal of the vase? (Characters identified: 景德鎮製)</a></p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/36555/round-seal-stamp-on-a-teapot-characters-identified-%e6%b2%88%e7%b4%85%e8%8b%b1%e5%88%b6">Round seal stamp on a teapot (Characters identified: 沈紅英制)</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p>See also the list of <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/wiki/frequently-requested" rel="nofollow noreferrer">frequently requested translations</a> at Reddit's <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">/r/translator</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-14T01:06:37.067Z
2021-12-08T22:31:48.197Z
2021-12-08T22:31:48.197Z
Becky 李蓓
<p>We get a lot of <strong><em>translation requests</em></strong> at Chinese.SE, and while we'd like to help, there's sometimes very little about <em>the Chinese language</em> in the question, and a lot about the procedure for obtaining plaintext from a photo.</p>

<p>Once we have the plaintext, we can simply input the plaintext into e.g. <a href="https://translate.google.cn/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google Translate</a> or <a href="https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Yabla</a> to get an approximate answer.</p>

<p>The aim of this post is to develop a <strong><em>self-help guide</em></strong> for use as a <strong><em>duplicate target</em></strong>.  Instead of closing these questions as "off-topic" and linking to <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese">an impractically long list of (mostly inapplicable) resources</a>, it'd be better to close as a duplicate of this self-help guide.</p>

<p><strong>Question</strong>: How do I self-answer "What does this say?"</p>

<p>Answers:</p>

<ul>
<li>Input the text into <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36145/8099">optical character recognition (OCR) software</a>.</li>
<li>What about <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36146/8099">handwriting</a>?</li>
<li>It's also possible to <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36148/8099">input characters by drawing them by hand</a>.</li>
<li>We can also <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36150/8099">search for a character by radical</a>.</li>
<li>Searching <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36182/18338">modern characters by any of their constituent components</a>.</li>
<li>Searching <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36184/18338">archaic character forms by any of their constituent components</a>.</li>
<li>What are some <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/39175/8099">commonly encountered Chinese characters?</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Still don't know?  Ask on Chinese.SE but <em>please show prior effort</em>.  For example, I asked this question: <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/36043/what-does-%e6%88%91%e4%bb%ac%e5%b7%b2%e7%bb%8f%e5%b8%ae%e6%82%a8%e8%b8%a9%e8%bf%87%e4%ba%86-mean-in-this-peculiarly-translated-escalator-sticker">What does 我们已经帮您踩过了 mean in this peculiarly translated escalator sticker?</a> and you can see what happened.</p>

<p>For things like seals, stamps, calligraphy, etc., it's sometimes impossible to get a translation without asking someone who can read Chinese (and sometimes even native Chinese speakers struggle with this).</p>

<p>There are Internet communities which welcome these questions: like Reddit's <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">/r/translator</a> (and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">/r/ChineseLanguage</a> has a pinned <em>翻译 Translation Thread!</em>).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T05:33:15.833Z
Seals are possible to read with minimal training. I agree that calligraphy is not.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T05:34:38.983Z
Really?  It'd be great to have an answer for that too (I don't think I could do it).
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-16T05:37:16.927Z
Sorry, that may have been an incomplete statement. I meant, seals are possible to read with minimal training for a *native speaker*, and only those familiar with Traditional Chinese (because Traditional Chinese and Seal Script share roughly the same character structure). About 60-70% of seal characters is about breaking characters down into components, applying a mental font change from seal shapes to 楷書 for each character component, then reconstructing the mental component change to the same structure as the seal.
dROOOze
<translation><transcription>
How do I self-answer "What does this say?"
# How do I self-answer "What does this say?"

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-12-16)

We get a lot of ***translation requests*** at Chinese.SE, and while we'd like to help, there's sometimes very little about *the Chinese language* in the question, and a lot about the procedure for obtaining plaintext from a photo.

Once we have the plaintext, we can simply input the plaintext into e.g. [Google Translate](https://translate.google.cn/) or [Yabla](https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php) to get an approximate answer.

The aim of this post is to develop a ***self-help guide*** for use as a ***duplicate target***. Instead of closing these questions as "off-topic" and linking to [an impractically long list of (mostly inapplicable) resources](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese), it'd be better to close as a duplicate of this self-help guide.

**Question**: How do I self-answer "What does this say?"

Answers:

* Input the text into [optical character recognition (OCR) software](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36145/8099).
* What about [handwriting](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36146/8099)?
* It's also possible to [input characters by drawing them by hand](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36148/8099).
* We can also [search for a character by radical](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36150/8099).
* Searching [modern characters by any of their constituent components](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36182/18338).
* Searching [archaic character forms by any of their constituent components](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36184/18338).
* What are some [commonly encountered Chinese characters?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/39175/8099)

Still don't know? Ask on Chinese.SE but *please show prior effort*. For example, I asked this question: [What does 我们已经帮您踩过了 mean in this peculiarly translated escalator sticker?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/36043/what-does-%e6%88%91%e4%bb%ac%e5%b7%b2%e7%bb%8f%e5%b8%ae%e6%82%a8%e8%b8%a9%e8%bf%87%e4%ba%86-mean-in-this-peculiarly-translated-escalator-sticker) and you can see what happened.

For things like seals, stamps, calligraphy, etc., it's sometimes impossible to get a translation without asking someone who can read Chinese (and sometimes even native Chinese speakers struggle with this).

There are Internet communities which welcome these questions: like Reddit's [/r/translator](https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/) (and [/r/ChineseLanguage](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/) has a pinned *翻译 Translation Thread!*).

**Tags:** translation, transcription

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Seals are possible to read with minimal training. I agree that calligraphy is not.  
> **username_0**: Really?  It'd be great to have an answer for that too (I don't think I could do it).  
> **username_1**: Sorry, that may have been an incomplete statement. I meant, seals are possible to read with minimal training for a *native speaker*, and only those familiar with Traditional Chinese (because Traditional Chinese and Seal Script share roughly the same character structure). About 60-70% of seal characters is about breaking characters down into components, applying a mental font change from seal shapes to 楷書 for each character component, then reconstructing the mental component change to the same structure as the seal.  

---

## 8 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2019-12-16. Score: 6

## Handwriting

**TL;DR**: Handwriting is much harder than printed text. The first step is to improve the image quality. Afterwards we can input the text into OCR software.

This is on a door where I'm staying.

![](https://i.postimg.cc/BQqjc2cr/74741088.jpg)

If we put it directly into [Online OCR](https://www.onlineocr.net/), it says:

> No recognized text !

The image quality is too poor.

### Step 1: Improve the image quality.

We can open up Paint (actually I use [Pinta](https://pinta-project.com/pintaproject/pinta/)) and go over the Chinese in black.

![](https://i.postimg.cc/90BrHfVg/74741088-2.jpg)

**Method 1**: change the brightness and contrast:

![](https://i.postimg.cc/1zMCXGBy/74741088-2.jpg)

**Method 2**: select only the black text (e.g. [GIMP](https://www.gimp.org/) has Tools/Selection Tools/By Color Select):

![](https://i.postimg.cc/DzjqXBXy/74741088-3.jpg)

### Step 2: Input into OCR software.

OCR software struggles with handwriting, so we may need to try a few times. If we input the second image above into [Online OCR](https://www.onlineocr.net/), we obtain:

> 请各位出入  
> 头好蓝色水门

It made two mistakes:

* the original says [关好](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%85%B3%E5%A5%BD) (close) and not 头好 (meaningless);
* the original says [木门](http://youdao.com/w/%E6%9C%A8%E9%97%A8) (timber door) and not [水门](http://youdao.com/w/%E6%B0%B4%E9%97%A8) (water gate).

So it's not perfect.

However, inputting the third image into [EasyScreenOCR](http://online.easyscreenocr.com/) gives:

> 请各位出入  
> 关好益包木门

It also made two errors:

* the original says [蓝色](http://youdao.com/w/%E8%93%9D%E8%89%B2) (blue) and not 益包 (meaningless).

### Step 3: Compare the outputs; fix bugs.

We can compare these two transcriptions. The writing is stuck on the inside of a blue wooden door, so...

* [关](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%85%B3) (to close) makes sense and not 头 (head);
* [蓝色](http://youdao.com/w/%E8%93%9D%E8%89%B2) (blue) makes sense;
* [木门](http://youdao.com/w/%E6%9C%A8%E9%97%A8) (timber door) makes sense.

So we can fix the bugs to obtain:

> 请各位出入  
> 关好蓝色木门

(It may be useful here to [search by radical](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36150/8099) to identify troublesome characters.)

### Step 4: Translate.

Now we put this into [Google Translate](https://translate.google.cn/#view=home&op=translate&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&text=%E8%AF%B7%E5%90%84%E4%BD%8D%E5%87%BA%E5%85%A5%20%20%E5%85%B3%E5%A5%BD%E8%93%9D%E8%89%B2%E6%9C%A8%E9%97%A8) to give:

> Please come in and close the blue wooden door

Actually, it's not a very good translation ([出入](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%87%BA%E5%85%A5) means "come in and go out"). We can break this up a bit further using [Yabla](https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=%E8%AF%B7%E5%90%84%E4%BD%8D%E5%87%BA%E5%85%A5%EF%BC%8C%E5%85%B3%E5%A5%BD%E8%93%9D%E8%89%B2%E6%9C%A8%E9%97%A8):

![](https://i.postimg.cc/fyJZbThR/Screenshot-2019-12-16-Definition-Mandarin-Chinese-P.png)

Thus it realistically means something like:

> Please, when coming in or going out, close the blue wooden door.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: What's TL;DR? Is it "too long didn't read"?  
> **username_0**: Yes.  It's basically an Internet way of saying "summary".  
> **username_2**: How does "too long didn't read" become "summary"? I don't see how it works.  
> **username_0**: I believe it started off as an insult to prohibitively long posts (to indicate "I don't have time to read that"), then people started commenting "TL;DR: [summary]" on other people's lengthy posts to save the future reader's time.  Then people started including a "[TL;DR](https://www.dictionary.com/e/acronyms/tldr/)" in their own posts.  

---

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-12-18. Score: 5

## Searching characters by their constituent components

**TL;DR**: We can find characters by inputting some or all of their constituent components.

[小學堂](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb) offers a component-searching interface, so that if you manage to recognise some components of a character but not the entire character, you can input those components to get a matching character which contains them.

Let's say that you come across the following character, and you don't recognise it:

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/Pq6QM.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/Pq6QM.png)

### Step 1. Identify as many parts of the character as possible.

Let's say that you've recognised 2「木」and a「彡」

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/Wrv8E.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/Wrv8E.png)

### Step 2. Input those components at <http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb>

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/MFyA3.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/MFyA3.png)

### Step 3. Click 確定送出 to get a list of matching characters.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/mzjot.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/mzjot.png)

> You should see the following if you did this step correctly:
>
> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/hz9Wf.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/hz9Wf.png)

### Step 4. After you've found the correct character, click the character (not the number underneath it) to bring up a pop-up box.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/zMr6o.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/zMr6o.png)

> You should see the following box pop up if you did this step correctly:
>
> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/z4QUs.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/z4QUs.png)

### Step 5. The box under 瀏覽器 contains a text character. You can select and copy the character, then look up the character under your favourite dictionary.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/62t6p.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/62t6p.png)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Great! It’d also be great to update the original question linking these answers. (I can’t do this easily right now.)  
> **username_1**: @username_0 oh, I see. I'll do it right now  

---

### Answer by username_0 on 2019-12-16. Score: 4

## [OCR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition): Optical Character Recognition

**TL;DR**: Input a photo of the text into OCR software (e.g. [Online OCR](https://www.onlineocr.net/)), then input the output into some translation software. This method requires a sufficiently high quality image for OCR to work. (It doesn't work well for handwriting, or top-to-bottom writing.)

Consider using these websites for OCR:

* [Yandex](https://translate.yandex.com/ocr)
* [OCR.space](https://ocr.space/)

Let's begin with a real example: a funny photo I took in Tianjin:

![](https://i.postimg.cc/htns2r1P/426973464.jpg)

So... *what does this say?*

### Step 1: Use Chinese OCR to get the plaintext Chinese.

The best software for doing this changes over time. I Googled `Chinese OCR` and stumbled upon [Online OCR](https://www.onlineocr.net/). Another possibility is the Copyfish OCR browser extension ([Chrome](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/copyfish-%F0%9F%90%9F-free-ocr-soft/eenjdnjldapjajjofmldgmkjaienebbj); [Firefox](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/copyfish-ocr-software/)). I understand both [Hanping Chinese](https://hanpingchinese.com/) and [Pleco](https://www.pleco.com/) are mobile options.

After uploading the image and selecting *Chinese Simplified*, we get:

> 这块位置we've alreadyetepped enthis area 我们已经帮您踩过了！

### Step 2: Input the plaintext Chinese into translation software.

For example, [Google Translate](https://translate.google.cn/) gives:

> 这块位置  
> This location

> 我们已经帮您踩过了！  
> We've helped you step over!

For the words that seem imprecisely translated, we can look them up in a dictionary, e.g. [YouDao](http://youdao.com/) or [Dict.cn](http://dict.cn/), or even just copy/paste the whole thing into [Yabla](https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php).

### Step 3: Still don't know? Ask on Chinese.SE showing what you've done.

Which is what I did for this image: [What does 我们已经帮您踩过了 mean in this peculiarly translated escalator sticker?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/36043/what-does-%e6%88%91%e4%bb%ac%e5%b7%b2%e7%bb%8f%e5%b8%ae%e6%82%a8%e8%b8%a9%e8%bf%87%e4%ba%86-mean-in-this-peculiarly-translated-escalator-sticker)


---

### Answer by username_0 on 2019-12-16. Score: 3

## Drawing characters by hand

**TL;DR**: We can obtain plaintext by manually drawing characters one-by-one using various software.

### Drawing on your phone

If your phone has Chinese input installed, you likely can already do this. E.g., here I'm entering in my name into Pleco:

![](https://i.postimg.cc/L4V5wsHK/839953035.jpg)

### [MDBG Online Dictionary](https://www.mdbg.net/)

MDBG will accept hand drawn characters, but it does care about stroke order. Click on the "brush" icon next to the search box:

[![mdbg.net stroke input](https://i.sstatic.net/vDwCy.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/vDwCy.png)

### Random websites

If you Google `draw characters chinese` there's lots of software in which you can draw characters by hand. It'll change over time, and there's sometimes browser issues, etc. So one random example is [qhanzi.com](https://www.qhanzi.com/):

![](https://i.postimg.cc/ZRcpKxh4/Screenshot-2019-12-16-Handwritten-Chinese-input.png)

### Google Translate

It's possible to draw characters using [Google Translate](https://translate.google.cn/) by clicking the pencil icon:

> [![hand-drawn 你 inputted into Google Translate](https://i.sstatic.net/fSava.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/fSava.png)


---

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-12-18. Score: 2

## Extended character searching by their constituent components: Small seal script, Chu silk and bamboo slip characters, bronze inscription characters, or oracle bone characters

TL;DR: Using approximately same sequence of steps as the [answer titled **Searching characters by their constituent components**](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36182/18338), we can search for other varieties of characters, including **small seal forms** (小篆), **Chu silk and bamboo slip characters** (楚系簡帛文字), **bronze inscription forms** (金文), and **oracle bone forms** (甲骨文).

We'll use the same example in **small seal script**.

### Step 1. Identify as many parts of the character as possible.

Let's say that you've recognised 2「木」and a「彡」.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/9mGvM.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/9mGvM.png)

### Step 2. Go to <http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb>, and click the desired script form. In this example, we're going to look at *small seal script*, so we'll click 小篆.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/Klgd9.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/Klgd9.png)

> You should see an extended box pop up if you did this step correctly:
>
> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/kRNlQ.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/kRNlQ.png)
>
> ---
>
> Note: The Chu silk and bamboo slip characters (楚系簡帛文字) option is hidden under *Warring States characters* (戰國文字).
>
> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/oGYSf.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/oGYSf.png)

### Step 3. Input the identified components.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/cTQI6.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/cTQI6.png)

### Step 4. Click 確定送出 to get a list of matching characters.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/PhmuE.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/PhmuE.png)

> You should see the following if you did this step correctly.
>
> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/tmyUN.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/tmyUN.png)

### Step 5. After you've found the correct character, click the character (not the number underneath it) to bring up a pop-up box.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/73Tyn.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/73Tyn.png)

> You should see the following box pop up if you did this step correctly.
>
> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/g6Lbu.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/g6Lbu.png)

### Step 6. The box under 瀏覽器 in the row 楷書 contains a text character. You can select and copy the character, then look up the character under your favourite dictionary.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/ghPVT.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/ghPVT.png)


---

### Answer by username_0 on 2019-12-16. Score: 1

## Search by radical

**TL;DR**: Chinese characters break down into [radicals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_%28Chinese_characters%29), so we can identify Chinese characters by searching via radicals. This requires basic familiarity with Chinese radicals.

### Step 1: Understanding radicals

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_%28Chinese_characters%29) and [Yellowbridge](https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/radicals.php) list the Chinese radicals. Chinese characters are written using these radicals.

Chinese characters are normally written ***top-left to bottom-right***. We can search for a particular character by identifying its first radical.

### Step 2: Searching via radicals

To actually do this, there‘s e.g. [Search by Radical](https://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html?r=) or [Radical/Strokes Lookup](https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=radicals). We take the character, e.g.

> ## 课

and identify its first radical. In this case it is the left-most radical (*remember*: top-left to bottom-right):

> ## 讠

(It's listed as a variant of 149. 言.)

Then we find this radical, and click the link:

![](https://i.postimg.cc/cJLbYnYm/Screenshot-2019-12-16-Search-by-Radical-Chinese-Character-Dict.png)

The following page lists most characters starting with that radical.

![](https://i.postimg.cc/T1bd6S3p/Screenshot-2019-12-16-Radical-Chinese-Character-Dictiona.png)

It's easier to locate if you have a rough idea of the number of strokes.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2019-12-16. Score: 0

I'm Chinese.

* To help old people who can't use Pinyin, most native cellphone keyboard software includes OCR. Even you can use voice input. eg: srf.xunfei.cn pinyin.sogou.com
* Some Chinese meme such as you asked "我们已经帮您踩过了" mean，I recommend you use native search website Baidu.
* Make some Chinese friends to help you.


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### Answer by username_0 on 2020-05-14. Score: 0

## Commonly encountered Chinese characters

There are a small number of characters which are often used for decorations, etc.:

### [福](http://youdao.com/w/eng/%E7%A6%8F/) (fú) = prosperity; good fortune

Often [hung upside down](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2400/why-%E7%A6%8F-is-often-used-upside-down) as a decoration.

* [What do these two characters on cufflinks signify? (Characters identified: 福 and 壽/夀)](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28634/what-do-these-two-characters-on-cufflinks-signify-characters-identified-%E7%A6%8F-and)
* [Does anyone know what this says and in what language?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/48923/does-anyone-know-what-this-says-and-in-what-language)

### [寿 / 壽](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%AF%BF) (shòu) = longevity

This is written with [multiple variants](http://chardb.iis.sinica.edu.tw/meancompare/58FD/5900).

* [Does anyone know what is the characters means (丁財貴寿)?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2511/does-anyone-know-what-is-the-characters-means-%e4%b8%81%e8%b2%a1%e8%b2%b4%e5%af%bf)
* [Is the meaning of this symbol "longevity"?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/3568/is-the-meaning-of-this-symbol-longevity)
* [What do these two characters on cufflinks signify? (Characters identified: 福 and 壽/夀)](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28634/what-do-these-two-characters-on-cufflinks-signify-characters-identified-%E7%A6%8F-and)
* [What do these two single-character calligraphic artworks mean? (Characters identified: 忍, 壽)](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/36954/what-do-these-two-single-character-calligraphic-artworks-mean-characters-ident)

(Together 福禄寿 / 福祿壽 form the [Sanxing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanxing_(deities)).)

### [囍](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%9B%8D) (xǐ) = double happiness (made of two [喜](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%96%9C) (xǐ) = happiness)

A decoration typically seen at Chinese weddings.

* [Translate the characters in this sign](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/30286/translate-the-characters-in-this-sign/30287#30287)

### [制 / 製](http://youdao.com/w/eng/%E5%88%B6) (zhì) = manufactured

This is often found as the last character (bottom-left) on stamps on teapots, etc.

* [Deciphering a seal on the bottom of a Buddha figure (Characters identified: 乾隆御製)](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1395/deciphering-a-seal-on-the-bottom-of-a-buddha-figure-characters-identified-%e4%b9%be%e9%9a%86%e5%be%a1%e8%a3%bd)
* [What does this mark mean? (Characters identified: 周桂珍制)](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/35716/what-does-this-mark-mean-characters-identified-%e5%91%a8%e6%a1%82%e7%8f%8d%e5%88%b6)
* [What’s the characters on this seal of the vase? (Characters identified: 景德鎮製)](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/35078/what-s-the-characters-on-this-seal-of-the-vase-characters-identified-%e6%99%af%e5%be%b7%e9%8e%ae%e8%a3%bd)
* [Round seal stamp on a teapot (Characters identified: 沈紅英制)](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/36555/round-seal-stamp-on-a-teapot-characters-identified-%e6%b2%88%e7%b4%85%e8%8b%b1%e5%88%b6)

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See also the list of [frequently requested translations](https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/wiki/frequently-requested) at Reddit's [/r/translator](https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/).


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