Calligraphy
Writing treated as a designed object.
Calligraphy is the art of decorative handwriting — letterforms made deliberately rather than merely legibly. It is a major art form in several traditions, and in Islamic art it is the pre-eminent one.
Traditions
| Tradition | Tool | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Western | Broad-edged pen, pointed nib | Uncial, blackletter, italic, copperplate |
| Arabic | Reed pen (qalam) | Kufic, Naskh, Thuluth; central to Islamic art |
| Chinese | Brush | Seal, clerical, regular, running, cursive scripts |
| Japanese | Brush | Shodō, developed from Chinese practice |
How the tool shapes the letter
A broad-edged pen held at a constant angle produces thick and thin strokes automatically as the direction of travel changes — the contrast is a consequence of the nib, not of pressure. A pointed nib works the opposite way, producing width through pressure that spreads the tines. A brush gives continuously variable width in any direction, which is why brush traditions developed such different letterforms.
Terms
Baseline, the line letters sit on. x-height, the height of a lowercase x. Ascender and descender, the parts rising above and dropping below. Serif, the small finishing stroke. Counter, the enclosed space inside a letter. Stroke order matters in every tradition and matters most in the brush scripts, where it changes the shape produced.