Seal, stamp or chop — what are we actually calling this?

印章: the carved object

A seal is engraved — traditionally in soapstone, jade or metal — with a name or phrase in relief or intaglio, and printed from cinnabar paste. The face is calligraphy and knife-work together: a craft object, historically the physical form of a person’s or office’s identity.

Because the face is carved, the impression is hard to reproduce exactly, which was the entire point: the seal is the authenticator. In China today it is still the company seal (公章) that signs contracts, more than any manager’s pen.

Stamp: the industrial convenience

Rubber stamps are a 19th-century industrial invention — name cut into rubber on a self-inking mount. Excellent for running 500 invoices through; they claim no identity and carry no artistry. Offices that keep both still let the carved seal do the certifying.

Chop: the treaty-port word

The word “chop” entered English through the East India trade from Hindi छाप (chhāp, “stamp, impression”). In Hong Kong and Singapore English it is standard: a name chop or doc chop is the rubber stamp that runs an office. A chop is a stamp, not a carved seal — but every business in Asia knows the family resemblance.

Japan keeps the carved line legally alive: the registered personal seal (実印) is required for property sales and major contracts, and even a bank signature card is traditionally stamped with a chop — the rubber bank chop for daily use, the registered stone for the house.

Why bother with a seal at all?

A cinnabar impression is archival: thousand-year-old silk scrolls still carry crisp red seals. The stone itself outlives trends — carvable with side inscriptions, collectible, inheritable. And for the digital world, a high-resolution transparent PNG of your seal works as a watermark, signature or print artwork today.