User Guide

8. Choose “Preview” from the View menu and turn
off “Show Points” to view your character without
points and filled.
Calligraphic tutelage from Judith Sutcliffe
Calligraphy is not the same thing as type. Generally, type is
carefully structured, straight-backed and neatly drawn.
Calligraphy is often looser, more graphically expressive and
flowing, and it more closely reminds us of the instrument
with which it was drawn. You can use Fontographer to
simulate a flat-nibbed pen or a Chinese brush, any of the
variety of instruments with which people have written with
calligraphic panache over the centuries.
Start by taking a look at the past and present of western,
eastern or middle eastern calligraphy. Your local library or
bookstore’s graphics section will have books with samples
of the work of ancient and modern calligraphers.
Try working with a calligraphic pen or brush. You don’t
have to be a whiz at it. You just need to pay attention to the
limitations of the medium. Try holding a wide, flat-nibbed
pen at a 45 degree angle and making vertical, horizontal and
angled lines as well as circles. You will quickly see how the
characteristic shapes of western calligraphy are achieved.
That knowledge of how the position of the pen affects the
line of ink that flows from it is what you need to know to
draw calligraphy with Fontographer. You need to internalize
the mechanics of the pen in your head. So that when you
draw an “O” you know that the pen will issue a wide
curving line on the right-side downstroke, but will taper to
near nothingness as you pull the stroke to a close at lower
left. Because the pen has a precise width, the stroke will
have a predictable variance in size. Most basic strokes are
made without turning the pen, but more advanced strokes do
Fontographer User's Manual
2: Creating New Fonts Page #26