medieval calligraphy alphabet

Gothic was a popular medieval calligraphy.  It was also called Blackletter for the dark appearance of a written page.  The letters are square in shape, and are written at a 45 degree angle. 

Click on the photo for a larger image of the Gothic alphabet.  Try copying the simpler lowercase letters, then move on to the more elaborate uppercase letters.  Make sure to use a 45 degree pen angle.

Try writing your name, squeezing the letters close enough together that you could fit just one pen stroke between them.  This technique was used by monks copying manuscripts, in order to save parchment.

old english calligraphy alphabet

Old English calligraphy, also referred to as blackletter script, means "beautiful writing," derived from the Greek words "calli" and "graphien." The letters are made up of thin and thick strokes from a quill stylus dipped into a jar of ink. Calligraphy was the main way books were written before the invention of the printing press.

History

Old English calligraphy goes by different names, including blackletter and gothic. This type of calligraphy was adopted and transformed from the Chinese calligraphers of the east. Chinese calligraphy is done with an ink brush and in a flowing, artistic manner. Old English calligraphy was meant for books written by scribes on parchment and vellum. The link between Chinese calligraphy and Old English calligraphy comes from the Phoenicians, who are credited with the first alphabet and letter writing systems and passed their knowledge through travel to the Greeks. In turn the Greeks created their own writing style and by 850 BC the Romans had changed it to suit the spoken Latin language. As the Roman churches started spreading through Europe during the Middle Ages, so did the calligraphic writings.

Function

The purpose of Old English calligraphy came about to save on the cost of paper or parchment and vellum, which were expensive. Scribes who were monks worked in the scriptorium of the monasteries and thinned out the letters of calligraphy. This was done to allow more words on a single line. This type of Old English calligraphy lasted well past the Middle Ages until the onset of the printing press. Beautifully decorated books filled with Old English calligraphy were often biblical. As only monks and some high-ranking nobility were literate, these books were made for high-ranking church members as well as royalty.

fancy calligraphy alphabet

Calligraphic is a fairly straightforward, simple calligraphic font that was based on the 6th grade curriculum book from Bob Jones University©, with which EFI is not associated. It is intended to give 6th graders something fun to do. Looks pretty nice on its own, though, so we included it for you. 

calligraphy alphabet guide

Written in calligraphy, words appear to waltz across a page. But don't let the rythmic flourishes and old-world elegance of such lettering fool you. Calligraphy is easy to learn. All you need to do it are a few special tools and a bit of patient practice. Before long, you'll find making letters this way as comfortable as using your best penmanship.

There are numerous styles and methods of calligraphy. We selected copperplate script because of its sophisticated appearance and simple form. Begin with a pen, a nib, ink or gouache, a guide sheet, and paper. Dip the pen into the ink until the hole of the nib is nearly covered; tap the nib on the rim of the pot, then make a few strokes on scrap paper to eliminate any excess ink, which might cause blotches or drips. The goal is to use enough ink to make solid lines, but not so much that the lines bleed. When the nib begins to scratch the paper, it's time to redip your pen.

Refer to the diagrams above to learn how to create letters and numerals (If you click on the tiny image, a new window will open with a full-size printable page). Position the paper at an angle, with the pen's tip aligned with one of the diagonal lines on your guide sheet. This technique may take getting used to because, unlike cursive handwriting, calligraphy usually involves lifting the pen from the paper several times during the course of making each letter.

cursive calligraphy alphabet

These Cursive Calligraphy are slightly more roundered from the English Calligraphy. The styles of this Calligraphy Alphabet is very cursive in nature with smooth lines and neat closings at the ends.

Many people like Calligraphy to be very cursive with beautiful closings on each letter and this Calligraphy Alphabet is certainly one of those!

Latin Alphabet

The classical Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome. The Etruscan alphabet was in turn adopted and further modified by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.

During the Middle Ages, the Latin alphabet was adapted to Romance languages, direct descendants of Latin, as well as to Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, and some Slavic languages. With the age of colonialism and Christian evangelism, the Latin script was spread overseas, and applied to indigenous American, Australian, Austronesian, Austroasiatic, and African languages. More recently, western linguists have also tended to prefer the Latin script or the International Phonetic Alphabet (itself largely based on Latin script) when transcribing or creating written standards for non-European languages, such as the African reference alphabet.

Source: Wikipedia

chinese alphabet symbols

Symbols were selected based on their visual similarity to corresponding English alphabet letters. Only real Chinese characters are used. Only characters that are positive or neutral in meaning are included.

You can now translate directly from written English to the Chinese “alphabet.” Type English sentences and our computer will translate them to a Chinese “Alphabet.” You can then print the translation or copy and paste it to your own document.

chinese alphabet letters

In modern Chinese there is a set of more than 400 syllables, made of two elements: an initial, the sheng and a final the yun. The first part, the sheng is the consonant that begins a syllable. The sheng is followed by a yun that is usually a vowel. The Chinese computerized fonts for words processor include 6500 characters for the simplified form.

Hebrew Alphabet Letters

The Hebrew and Yiddish languages use a different alphabet than English. The picture below illustrates the Hebrew alphabet, in Hebrew alphabetical order. Note that Hebrew is written from right to left, rather than left to right as in English, so Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and Tav is the last. The Hebrew alphabet is often called the "alefbet," because of its first two letters.

Font - Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since the 8th century BC.It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was in turn the ancestor of numerous other European and Middle Eastern scripts, including Cyrillic and Latin.Apart from its use in writing the Greek language, both in its ancient and its modern forms, the Greek alphabet today also serves as a source of technical symbols and labels in many domains of mathematics, science and other fields.

Article Source: Wikipedia