online calligraphy tools
Hello folks! Still snowed under a mass of work but hopefully I'll manage.. Anyway, I was doing some calligraphy yesterday, going over and over again the same foundational hand cause it never works out the way I'd like it to. I've got quite a crooked hand I guess because my lines are never straight and letters change their size all the time. So I started thinking of tools I could use and found a couple of really useful ones!
Digital Calligraphy
Why not? Everything can be done digitally nowadays, from journalling to farming. Calligraphy is not an exception. There must be a lot more ways to do that but I was particularily interested by an open source graphics editor called Inkscape. I'm sure it's very versatile and a good alternative to Illustrator or CorelDraw (mostly because it's free and is supported both by Windows and Mac) but I think it's greatest feature is its calligraphy tool. You can adjust everything from thinning to angle behaviour and it works in tandem with a graphics tablet to recreate an almost-real calligraphic experience. You can download the program here and I'll definately try it out as soon as I get to my own computer.
Calligraphy learning websites
I haven't tried these yet and there's not much but these might be useful! However, I recommend investing in a good book as these are irreplaceable.
Calligraphy Learn - it has great video tutorials and useful tips, as well as a bunch of interesting links.
Learn Calligraphy (how original!) - video tutorials and alphabets.
Calligraphy Online - a decent set of basic lessons
Maybe Calligraphy blogs could be a bit more useful?
Scribblers blog - this basically revolves around their items and shipping but a couple of good pieces of advice there.
The Calligraphy Pen - now here's a practical blog for you. Tips and tricks, great links and step by step tutorials.
Notes: A Calligraphic Journal - I think this is the most current and updated blog on calligraphy AND it has lots of links to other interesting calligraphy blogs! Great, turns out calligraphy's not dead!
Grid generator
LinugraphΒ - this is THE tool to use if you're as lazy as I am. Angles, nib widths, everything you need to set your writing on the correct line!
The International Exhibition of Calligraphy - check the website here and make sure you go through all the galleries!
And a huge calligraphy-typography group with lots of resources and fun material - TYPOPHILE!
And as a final note - this is beautiful!
(by Khawar Bilal)
And now I'm returning to my last hour of work. Have fun!
