One writing system, five voices
Unlike alphabets that evolved mainly toward speed, Chinese scripts developed along two axes at once: everyday efficiency and ceremonial beauty. Over three thousand years this produced five canonical styles, each with its own proportions, stroke logic and emotional register. A calligrapher chooses a style the way a musician chooses an instrument — the notes may be the same, but the voice is entirely different.
The five styles are traditionally listed in historical order: Small Seal (篆), Clerical (隶), Regular (楷), Semi-Cursive (行) and Wild Cursive (草). Each page in our dedicated styles section goes deep on one; here is the overview.
Small Seal Script (小篆) — the imperial voice
Standardized in 221 BC under the First Emperor, Small Seal is the oldest unified Chinese script. Characters are tall and symmetrical, strokes of perfectly even thickness, ends rounded. It looks carved even when brushed. Because seals (chops) still use it, Small Seal carries an official, timeless gravity — the natural choice for a personal name seal.
For tattoos, it reads as "ancient and deliberate". Its even strokes survive scaling well. See the full Small Seal Script guide for masterworks like the Yishan Stele.
Han Clerical Script (汉隶) — the sturdy democrat
Clerical Script emerged when clerks needed to write faster than seal script allowed. The result is a wide, flattened architecture with a signature move: the "silkworm head and wild-goose tail" (蚕头燕尾) wave stroke. Where seal script is ceremonial, clerical is public — it filled the steles and administrative records of the Han dynasty.
Its openness makes it one of the most legible historic scripts at a distance, which is why it works beautifully for names and quotes at tattoo scale. The Han Clerical guide covers its masters and the famous steles.
Regular Script (楷书) and the Yuan refinement (元楷)
Regular Script is the script children learn and books print: balanced squares, clear separate strokes, disciplined proportion. Within it, the Yuan-dynasty master Zhao Mengfu created a softer, more literary variant — our studio's 元楷 (Yuan Regular) — whose strokes lean and breathe where Tang models stand at attention.
This is the style most people picture when they hear "Chinese calligraphy". For a name artwork meant to be read instantly and admired quietly, it is the default recommendation. Compare Tang and Yuan voices in the Yuan Regular Script guide.
Semi-Cursive (行书) — handwriting elevated
Semi-Cursive keeps Regular Script's skeleton but links strokes and softens endings, the way fast but careful handwriting does. It is the style of the most celebrated calligraphy on earth: Wang Xizhi's Lanting Xu (Preface to the Orchid Pavilion), called the greatest piece of Chinese calligraphy ever written.
Emotionally it sits between order and freedom — perfect for names that should feel personal rather than monumental. The Semi-Cursive guide traces the lineage from Wang Xizhi to Song masters like Su Shi.
Wild Cursive (狂草) — the abstract gesture
Wild Cursive abandons legibility for pure rhythm. Characters chain together, strokes streak and loop; reading it is closer to following a dancer than decoding text. Tang dynasty masters Zhang Xu and Huaisu — famously after wine — produced works that modern abstract painters cite as ancestors.
It is stunning and risky: for a name tattoo, only choose Wild Cursive if the gesture matters more to you than the reading. The Wild Cursive guide shows what the two drunken masters actually made.
Which style should carry your name?
A simple decision path: ceremonial and timeless → Small Seal; sturdy and readable → Clerical; classic and refined → Yuan Regular; personal and flowing → Semi-Cursive; artistic and abstract → Wild Cursive. Many people render the same name in two or three styles before feeling the click.
Try it with your own name right now — for example, see how the seven candidates for Ava, Mia or James look across the five scripts, then download the one that feels like you. Render my name in all five scripts →