MetaFilter posts tagged with Calligraphy

Custom Letters

minifigs — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:01:11 -0800

Custom Letters is an evolving category that includes calligraphy, sign painting, graffiti, stone carving, digital lettering, hand lettering, paper sculpture, and type design.

Illuminating!

litterateur — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:27:46 -0800

"[Celtic] knots are most known for their adaptation for use in the ornamentation of Christian monuments and manuscripts like the 8th century St. Teilo Gospels, the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels." Some are drawn by using simple graphs, while others utilize basic shapes. And then there are people who just have way too much time on their hands.

calligraphy

dhruva — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:05:54 -0800

Calligraphy Qalam An introduction to Arabic, Ottoman and Persian Calligraphy. See a gallery, a timeline of scripts and styles, a blog with entries such as how to design your own square kufic calligraphy, and much more.

You Are My Type

netbros — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:23:09 -0800

The Ministry of Type is a weblog about type, typography, lettering, calligraphy and other related things. The FontFeed, from the folks at FontShop, is a daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world. Articles of interest in the archives include: Passenger and pedestrian symbols created in the early 20th Century; as part of the Isotype project set up by Otto Neurath to provide information to the often-illiterate proletariat. Central to banknote designs are Guilloche patterns, which can be created mechanically with a geometric lathe, or more likely these days, mathematically. Travel posters promoting travel to exotic eras and destinations, such as the Crimson Canyons of Mars, Tranquil Miranda, or the Winter Wonderland of the Ice Age. It’s not just the latest font technology, but also the most advanced, poised to replace the old TrueType and PostScript formats. Embrace the open type hype. The best contemporary handwriting typefaces in various writing styles — from print to cursive, simple to swashy. Sometimes, flat just doesn’t cut it, and we need to find other, more attractive ways to present designs. Tutorial: Photorealistic Perspective

Ink dance

of strange foe — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:04:07 -0800

Dancing with Ink: by Taiwanese photographer Liu Chunxing (刘纯兴).

A little light calligraphy

gottabefunky — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:52:57 -0800

Julien Briton draws calligraphy with light. [Via]

Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy

Kattullus — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:21:09 -0800

Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy from the collection of The Library of Congress. 373 individual pieces from ranging in time from the 9th to the 19th Century, all explained and some translated. A few personal favorites (note that very high quality scans can be viewed by clicking the appropriate link after clicking thumbnail): marriage decree, verses on tragic love, practice sheet, verses 10-11 of the 48th chapter of the Qur'an, poetic verses offering advice, frontispiece of Qur'anic exegesis and quatrain by Rumi. There are also four special presentations: Calligraphers of the Persian Tradition, Ottoman Calligraphers and Their Works, Qur’anic Fragments and Noteworthy Items. This last presentation also features representational art, for instance images of The battle of Mazandaran and the Persian king Bahram Gur hunting.

Keyboard calligraphy

dhruva — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:25:49 -0800

Keyboard calligraphy "To produce such a typeface, Müteferrika knew he had to analyze Arabic script. Calligraphers might learn to make the correctly shaped letter combinations by practice, without conscious application of tens of thousands of rules, but for machine reproduction of the script, deciphering those rules was exactly what was essential."

Alhamdulillah

klangklangston — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:12:02 -0800

Mouneer Al-Shaarani's beautiful Syrian calligraphy. Any Arab-literates out there who can tell me what they all mean?

Khalil al-Zahawi, RIP

psmealey — Tue, 29 May 2007 15:18:04 -0800

Famed Arabic calligrapher Khalil al-Zahawi murdered. (Arabic: خليل الزهاوي‎; 1946 - 25 May 2007) Khalil al-Zahawi was the most famous practitioner in Iraq of the art of writing classical Arabic script. He was shot to death Friday as he left his home.

New Islamic Art Exhibition Site

peacay — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:27:28 -0800

The new 'Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean' site incorporates material from 14 countries through 18 exhibition sites that explore the the cultural and artistic heritage of Islamic dynasties spanning 1200 years. [via].

Eikanji

Talvalin — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 05:09:13 -0800

28-year-old Tomomi Kunishige has created a new form of Japanese calligraphy, dubbed Eikanji (literally 'english kanji'), which uses the Roman alphabet to represent Japanese characters. Even if you don't study Japanese her calligraphy is still worth admiring, though it must be said that some of the paintings involve a fairly relaxed usage. (taken from Mainichi Daily News)

Write your name in Tengwar (Tolkien's Elvish)

persona non grata — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:18:30 -0800

Write your name in Tengwar, the Elvish language/alphabet created by JRR Tolkien. You can work with Tengwar fonts based on Middle Earth languages and runes and see many examples of the script via a Google Image search. According to Tolkien, "there is quite a bit of linguistic wisdom in it." There are certainly websites devoted to his languages and thier history. And It took some thought and work to make the speech sound right in the movies.

Type, handwriting, and lettering

persona non grata — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 19:50:25 -0800

Type, handwriting, and lettering

Computational calligraphy

Wolfdog — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 05:45:55 -0800

Caligraft - computational calligraphy.

Nastaliq Past and Present

BuddhaInABucket — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 21:12:35 -0800

According to Persian mythology, God is a painter who has painted the world with his kelk. More Persian calligraphy h e r e.

Islamic Art

obedo — Sun, 05 Sep 2004 19:56:06 -0800

IslamicArchitecture.org : Islamic architecture, Islamic patterns and Islamic calligraphy.

Fountain Pen Mania

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 01 May 2003 08:10:57 -0800

Keyboards Are Not Like Nibs: Fountain pens - or writing instruments in general - rule. Lately though, the main manufacturers have stooped to ballpoints, gels and other madnesses. Just as the stupid calligraphy fad killed proper handwriting, the main fountain pen manufacturers have been their own hangmen. I love Pelikan but my main hearbreak is Rotring, whose rapidograph 0.10 and 0.18 and isograph 0.20 (this latter line now sadly reduced to college sets) are my favourite scratching sticks. Are you holding a torch for any of those legendary manufacturers (Parker, Waterman, Cross, Schaeffer, Aurora, Lamy et caetera) who have gone down the drain? What glides your writing hand? Is the pseudish, unpardonably expensive and increasingly naff Montblanc the last pen manufacturer to uphold its own standards? When you do put pen to paper - if you still do at all - what's your stubborn choice? Damn it, you must use something to log into your Moleskine!

Illuminated Manuscripts

thomas j wise — Wed, 30 Apr 2003 17:53:52 -0800

Illuminated manuscripts are truly a joy to behold. And there are a remarkable number of them available on the web for your viewing pleasure. The most famous illuminated MS is the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. For galleries with multiple images, try the resources at DScriptorium, Web Gallery of Art, and the Leaves of Gold exhibition. Elyse Boucher's page is a work-in-progress detailing the history and methods of illuminating books, with both images and secondary sources; see also Sue Wood's Art and Books page.

hama7 — Thu, 31 Oct 2002 05:08:30 -0800

Chinese culture. Calligraphy, and Chinese rural architecture.

mediareport — Fri, 26 Jul 2002 00:07:15 -0800

It can be stately and elegant, beautiful and swirling or square and modern. It makes a surprising variety of intricate pictures. Why is the written word honored so highly in Islamic art? Find out by diving into the gorgeous world of Arab Calligraphy. Here's a friendly portal to help. Take time to linger over a language that took a different path. (Bonus for font freaks inside)

Settle — Tue, 19 Mar 2002 19:32:47 -0800

Got bad handwriting? Go back to where the nightmare started and learn to write all over again. Or, if that didn't work the first time, try some more advanced instruction. Perhaps you just want to adopt the handwriting of one of your idols. In that case, I'm way ahead of you. Remember - write with all your muscles, not just with your fingers.