Seal script translator type Chinese, see 篆書
Paste up to four Chinese characters — your name, a motto, a studio mark — and watch them come back as seal script (篆書), engraved the way a carver would cut them. The preview is rendered on our server and cached; your text is never stored.
Translate into seal script
Transparent PNG. Open the image to save it. Longer text: use the generator below.
What this translator actually does
Seal script is not a cipher with a one-to-one key. A translator here does two jobs at once: it selects the seal-script form of each character you typed (the 小篆 shapes standardised under the Qin in 221 BCE), then lays those forms out on a carved seal face — which means deciding how many strokes become white, how the grid is divided, and how the border is cut.
That second half is why a plain font swap never looks like a seal. A carved face has a physical floor: strokes must be thick enough to hold ink and wide enough not to break, so characters are stretched to fill their squares rather than set at their natural proportions.
Reading it back: how a seal is laid out
On a two-character seal the characters usually run top to bottom on the right, then top to bottom on the left — not left to right. A four-character face is read in two columns of two, still right column first. This is why a seal can look “backwards” to someone reading modern Chinese.
Seals also run the risk of confusion through symmetry. Carvers answer with the border: a squared, deliberately broken frame stops the eye from wandering out of the face and, traditionally, stops a seal from looking like unused stone.
Seal script, small seal script and bronze script
Three styles get called “seal script” in English. Bronze script (金文) is the earliest, cast into ritual vessels of the Shang and Zhou — it is where the Zhongshan King style used on this site comes from, with its taut curves and pointed terminals.
Small seal script (小篆) is the Qin standardisation: taller, more even, deliberately regular. Clerical script (隷書) came next and is the ancestor of the modern characters you are typing. To translate into either seal style is to walk the writing system backwards by two thousand years.
Where this is useful
Three groups use a translator. Tattoo research: you want to check a character’s seal form before it is permanent. Craft and design: you want a mark that reads as carved rather than typed. And family history: a Chinese name or surname character you have inherited and want to see in its oldest usable form.
If you want the English direction — your own name transliterated with meaning into a Chinese name, then carved — use the name seal generator instead. This page is for characters you already have.
More seal guides
How worn the ink looks — 0% is a fresh stamp, 100% is eroded stone.
Preview only. The downloaded PNG is 1024×1024.
FAQ
What is SealsCrafter?
SealsCrafter (sealscrafter.com) is a free Chinese name seal generator: it transliterates your English name into a real Chinese name — characters chosen for sound and meaning — then carves it as an authentic seal (印章) in genuine seal script. You export a transparent PNG instantly: no sign-up, no watermark, no cost. The carving uses the Zhongshan King (中山王) bronze-inscription seal script, supplemented by the Academia Sinica Chongxi Small Seal (崇羲篆體) for characters the main font lacks.
What is a Chinese name seal?
A personal stamp — classically a small stone engraved with your name in seal script and pressed in red cinnabar ink — used in China, Japan and Korea for 3,000 years in place of a signature. Full guide: what is a Chinese name seal.
What is the difference between 朱文 and 白文?
朱文 (zhūwén) prints the characters in red on paper; 白文 (báiwén) prints them white out of a solid red field. Both are authentic modes of carving — see zhuwen vs baiwen. Both are one click away in the generator above.
Is it a seal, a chop or a stamp?
Seal (印章) is the carved stone; a chop is the same object called by its Anglo-Indian colonial-era name (from Hindi chhāp, common in Hong Kong and Singapore); a stamp is usually the modern rubber office version. More: seal vs chop vs stamp.
Is it really free?
Yes — free, no login, no watermark. Ad-supported.
What font does it use?
The Zhongshan King seal script (中山王篆), a Warring-States bronze-inscription style, released under the SIL Open Font License.
Can I use the PNG commercially?
The seal design is yours to use. The font is OFL-licensed; exporting the image is fine for any personal or commercial use.