How To Use Calligraphy Paper

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Ane of the best things you lot can do to meliorate your calligraphy right away is by using guidelines, and in this article, that's exactly what I'll be showing you lot how to practice.

Before we jump directly into it, let's accept a quick overview of the contents of this article –

1. What are calligraphy guidelines, and why practice you demand them?
2. What tools do you demand to depict calligraphy guidelines?
3. The anatomy (terminology) of calligraphy guidelines
4. How to describe calligraphy guidelines – step by step
5. How to size guidelines (traditional and modern calligraphy)
6. A few extra tips to streamline the procedure
7. Concluding words

Without any further delays, permit's jump straight into information technology.

I also made a YouTube video if you prefer to lookout man –

What are calligraphy guidelines, and why exercise you lot need them?

Calligraphy guidelines are lines to assist yous determine the size and proportions of your letterforms, and at the same time, they are here to assistance you and keep your calligraphy nice and consequent. Calligraphy guidelines may vary in size depending on the fashion of writing you've chosen to do.

I'll talk more most the different styles and guideline sizes afterward on in this article.

And then why exercise you even demand calligraphy guidelines?

Well, one of the key elements for calligraphy is consistency.

Consistency in proportions, heights, angles, etc.

Guidelines are extremely helpful in maintaining a higher level of consistency for your calligraphy.

You meet, while yous write, you have to focus on a bunch of different things.

• How you sit down
• Hold the pen
• How much force per unit area to add
• How to move your arm
• How to course the letters' shapes, etc.

Without guidelines, you lot must also consider maintaining a consistent rhythm in alphabetic character proportions, heights, angles, etc.

You can nevertheless write without guidelines, but you lot will struggle without them, peculiarly if you program to write more than ii words.

Hither is an example where I wrote the aforementioned discussion.

Ane is with, and the other 1 is without guidelines, and I remember information technology clearly demonstrates the divergence.

I've added the guidelines on the example above after I wrote the word. To demonstrate how inconsistent it is.

I continuously recommend using guidelines, especially considering how chop-chop and easily you can create them from scratch.

In fact, in my experience, non using guidelines is one of the most frequent reasons why beginners struggle to ameliorate.

With that in listen, permit's proceed to the next section.

What tools do yous demand to create calligraphy guidelines?

To create calligraphy guidelines, you volition demand but a few essential calligraphy tools.

In curt the tools, you volition demand are (links to Amazon) –

• Paper
• A ruler
• A pencil

I'll provide a few recommendations for those looking to stock upwards on some of these items.

Paper recommendation

The paper depends on the writing tool you are using.

To not go too deep into this topic  (i already did here), hither is a quick recommendation for the paper option –

For brush and other felt tip pens –

• HP Premium 32 – best bang for your buck
• Canson Marker Pad – better quality
• Rhodia pads – also better quality

For wide edge nibs, fountain pens (due east.g., Pilot Parallel Pen) and pointed nibs –

• Canson Watercolor paper
• Rhodia pads

The Rolling Ruler

As for the ruler, you tin employ any ruler you accept at mitt.

However, when we talk about calligraphy, I recommend either a T-square ruler or my personal favorite – The Rolling Ruler.

It's similar a regular ruler simply with a cylinder on the backside that allows yous to draw straight parallel lines quickly and efficiently.

It is extremely helpful when it comes to creating calligraphy and lettering guidelines.

I beloved it, and I utilise it all the fourth dimension. I remember information technology's an excellent investment for whatever calligrapher's toolbox.

The Pencil

The pencil tin can besides be whatever you have at hand.

Merely brand certain to describe the guidelines lightly and then you tin easily erase them one time you are done.

I personally use a Staedtler mechanical pencil with 0.5 HB lead.

It always gives me nice sharp and light lines, which are then super hands removed.

Did you know that the pencil is then crawly that you can really use information technology to do calligraphy?

The anatomy (terminology) of calligraphy guidelines

Before I show you lot how to describe calligraphy guidelines, I think information technology'south of import to understand each line's purpose and name.

Don't worry. It'due south nix too complicated.

In the image below, you can see the reference image with the guidelines.

Each of the lines has it'south ain number, and here yous can see their names –

1. Baseline – The line where all the messages sit down (both minuscule and upper-case letter)
2. Waistline – The peak line for all lowercase (minuscules) messages.
3. 10-height – is not the name of a line but rather the tiptop between the baseline and the waistline.
4. Cap line – The top line for all capital (majuscules) letters.
5. Ascender line – The tiptop line for all ascending letters (h, b, k, l, d, f)
6. Descender line – The bottom line for all descending messages (m, j, p, q, y)
7. Slant/angle lines – These are the lines to help you maintain your letters' consequent slant.

Every bit yous can see, we are working with many parallel lines, and it's precisely why the rolling ruler is such a useful tool for drawing calligraphy guidelines.

Quick side note – the distance between the slant/angle lines is determined by you, and it doesn't determine the spacing between the messages. I tend to keep them evenly spaced, so information technology doesn't distract me while I write the messages.

Ok, at present that we know what lines we have to draw (and how we telephone call them), we can proceed to the next section.

The 1 you lot've been patiently waiting for.

How to make calligraphy guidelines – stride by stride

Drawing guidelines is quite uncomplicated.

The matter that I noticed people tend to struggle with is how to size them correctly.

I'll get to that in a second, but outset, let me quickly demonstrate how I create my guidelines.

Step i –

Align the ruler to the top of the page, and slide it down to below half of the folio.

Step ii –

Beginning past drawing straight horizontal lines from bottom to top. Information technology is important that you draw all of the lines I mentioned in the anatomy section.

You will need (in order from lesser to tiptop) –

• A descending line
• A baseline
• A waistline
• A capline
• An ascending line

Note – make sure your ascending and descending space is the same size.

Step three –

Flip the ruler vertically and create the angle lines.

I would suggest maintaining an equal altitude between them so you don't get distracted while writing.

Pace 4 –

Write out your letters.

Now that you accept your guidelines, yous know exactly how big and slanted your letters should be.

Don't rush and write out your word by following the guidelines.

Stride 5 –

Give information technology a couple of minutes for the ink to dry out, and then gently erase the guidelines.

How to size guidelines (traditional & modern calligraphy)

As you can see, creating guidelines isn't difficult.

The key to guidelines is knowing how to size them correctly, which is what I desire to cover in this part.

The main distinction when information technology comes to sizing guidelines is between traditional and mod calligraphy.

• Traditional calligraphy scripts have well-defined rules when information technology comes to sizing and structuring your letterforms.
• Modern calligraphy, on the other hand, is more than open to personal interpretation.

Permit's briefly touch base of operations with traditional scripts through a few examples, then we tin can proceed with modern and brush calligraphy.

Guidelines for traditional calligraphy scripts

For traditional scripts, we use guidelines not merely for achieving higher consistency only also to become the correct letter proportions.

Broad-edged scripts have a clever way of proportionally sizing the messages based on the size of the tool you are using.

Instead of having a fixed size in centimeters/inches, the size of the messages is determined by beak widths.

Hither are a few examples –

• Blackletter calligraphy (Textura) letters (minuscules) have an x-elevation of 5 nib widths. The cap line is usually at seven nib widths as well as the ascending and descending letters.

• Italic calligraphy is also at a v beak width for the minuscule messages and a seven pecker width for the capitals. However, the ascenders and descenders extend for a total of 10 nib widths.

• Copperplate calligraphy is performed with a pointed neb. Therefore we cannot use the aforementioned approach every bit we practice with wide-edged scripts. Instead, a general rule of thumb is the use of a three:2:iii ratio. The letters are also slanted at a 55 caste bending.

Calligraphy guidelines for modernistic/brush calligraphy

One of the things I like well-nigh modern calligraphy is the creative freedom you have.

We still want to follow esthetical principles such as balance, contrast, consistency, etc.

It'south precisely the reason why even with modern calligraphy, you lot still want to use guidelines.

And then, how practice you lot size guidelines for modern calligraphy without whatsoever predetermined rules?

The respond is – yous decide the sizes and angles that you desire to utilize.

What matters is that you remember to describe out all of the lines I mentioned in the previous section (the anatomy).

Here are a few examples to meliorate demonstrate this.

Case #ane – evenly balanced

Here I decided to take an equal size for the x-height and the ascenders and descenders, a ane:1:1 ratio.

As for the angle, I went for a 20-degree camber.

Example #ii – High descenders and descenders

Here I used a 3:1:3 ratio, meaning that the ascenders and descenders are three times bigger than the space betwixt the baseline and the waistline (a.k.a. The x-height).

I've also increased the slant to 35 degrees. Higher descenders and descenders are helpful when you wish to implement calligraphy flourishes.

Instance #3 – a prominent x-meridian.

Hither I've decided to make the ascenders and descenders smaller and actually contrary the ratio from the previous example – 1:iii:1

Additionally, I also reduced the angle to 15 degrees, giving it a very soft slant.

As you can see, once you know the needed lines, you can easily switch them upwardly and become totally unlike looks for your calligraphy.

If you lot're interested in learning how to write the whole alphabet in calligraphy, check out this tutorial.

A few actress tips to streamline the process

Personally, I always depict my guidelines from scratch using a pencil and my rolling ruler.

I've washed this for a very long time, and it'due south merely the method I prefer to utilise.

That being said, I know that others might prefer something more streamlined.

Here are a few methods to attain that.

1. Try using a calligraphy guideline generator

Over the years, I've stumbled upon several calligraphy guidelines generators.

The idea is uncomplicated, y'all create your guide sheet, and so you print it out.

These 2 are my favorites as they provide a live preview and a high level of customization –

1. http://lanquach.com/guidesheet/
2. https://www.blocklayer.com/writing-guide-paper.aspx

Additionally, you can also effort these –

1. https://kylev.github.io/pen/
2. http://calligraffiti.in/rulings
3. https://cd.kaligrafia.info/
4. http://liniuszek.prv.pl/

Hopefully, I can before long take a guideline generator hither on Lettering Daily 😀 .

ii. Create your own guide sheet template

The marker paper I mentioned earlier (in the tool section) is excellent for both brush pen and broad-edged tools.

On top of that is relatively thin (only 70 gsm/18 lbs).

We can take advantage of the thin paper by making our own guide sheet template.

Catch a bare piece of paper, a ruler, and a blackness fineliner.

You can then use the guide canvas template over and again

If you don't accept a thinner paper you can use a low-cal tablet instead.

The bright light from the tablet will shine through the newspaper without any problems.

With the light tablet you tin fifty-fifty utilise regular (thicker) paper.

The benefit of using these methods is that yous don't accept to apply an eraser to remove the guidelines.

It's especially benign if you are working on an of import projection.

iii. Apply a laser liner

I personally never tried information technology, but I've seen many calligraphers using information technology, and that's why I included it on the list.

The laser line level seems like a skilful culling if y'all are working on an important project where you tin't describe pencil guidelines.

The only downside is that you are but working with a baseline, so I call back this could just be suitable for more experienced calligraphers.

Here is a quick example by @suzcunningham –

Additionally, yous can sign up for the Lettering Crate and become instant access to all the gratis worksheets currently available. In that location are worksheets including full alphabets, drills, unlike calligraphy and lettering styles, and much more.

Simply driblet your email below and follow the instructions (two easy steps).

Summing information technology all up – terminal words.

And at that place you lot take it, friends.

That's pretty much everything you need to know most calligraphy guidelines.

Hither is a quick epitomize of the article –

• Guidelines are super helpful to keep your letters nice and consequent
• The rolling ruler is the best tool (IMO) to describe guidelines
• Understanding the anatomy and terminology is a crucial part of knowing how to make guidelines
• Traditional calligraphy scripts have well-defined sizes when it comes to drawing guidelines
• Modern/brush calligraphy is more open to personal interpretation. You lot determine the sizing and angles of your letterforms
• You can either draw your guidelines or impress some templates using one of the generators I mentioned above.

I hope this mail was helpful to you. If you lot accept any questions most this topic or even suggestions for future tutorials – feel free to drop a comment below or even shoot me an email.

Until the next ane,

Stay AWESOME!

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About the author

Lettering Daily is an online community that provides educational and inspirational content for mitt lettering and calligraphy beginners. ​Our mission is to assist artists and enthusiasts from all around the world to learn and improve their hand lettering and calligraphy skills.

How To Use Calligraphy Paper,

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