Topics

1

Workshops & Conference News / 36 Days of Type Instagram Event

« on: April 06, 2015, 11:50:05 PM »

Sorry for posting this a tad late but there are some Spanish (?) guys running this second yearly event in which they invite people to upload a letter of the alphabet each day (plus some numbers) with specific hash tags to Instagram. The event is called 36 Days of Type. No prizes but it might be fun. The contest started today but you could still make it. The rules are here: http://www.36daysoftype.com/participa---join.html

The Instagram page: https://instagram.com/explore/tags/36daysoftype/

Technique and style are free. More detailed information on the first link. The texts are written in both Spanish and English.




My entry for today:

2

Calligraphy Book Reviews / Gottfried Pott: Kalligrafie, erste Hilfe (...) / Kalligrafie intensiv-Training

« on: January 21, 2015, 01:06:52 AM »

These are my favourite calligraphy books. As many of you, I have bought calligraphy books now and then, until reaching a point where you really want to consider buying more, since lot of them seem to have not only similar text contents, but design similarities. These books are different, and a very nice kind of different.

Mr. Pott writes about the usual stuff: a brief history of writing, practice tips, nice calligraphic samples. But there's a whole lot more text than images in this book, and I'm not saying the books lack images. It's just that most calligraphy books I've stumbled upon rely a lot on big images. In these two books, the photos and illustrations aid the reading, but the text itself is deeper, more personal, more introspective, than if it were just a mere "how-to" book. There's a constant invitation to reflect upon one's feelings and conceptions about calligraphy itself. You simply feel the author is a cultivated man talking to you. The first book is directed principally to beginners, the second to more versed users and talks a tad more about experimentation than in the former.

I don't know if there are English versions of these books (these are in German), but you should definitely look for them.

ISBN: 978-3-87439-675-2 and 3-87439-700-9
Published by Hermann Schmidt / Mainz

3

Digital Design / Vectorising calligraphy with CorelDRAW (a tutorial). Questions kindly answered.

« on: January 20, 2015, 02:13:46 PM »

Hi,

I am a graphic designer and I use CorelDRAW for all things vector-related. CorelDRAW is practically equivalent to Adobe's Illustrator but, in my opinion, it typically requires less steps to accomplish the same tasks. Although this software can be used for many, many things, this thread is only a tutorial for turning your calligraphy into vector shapes with it; shapes you can manually and easily edit, clean-up, refine and output for almost any file type you need, be it vector or bitmap. Feel free to post any questions you have and I will be glad to answer them.

What you will need:
A PC with Windows on it (the last CorelDRAW version which was released for the Macintosh platform –version 11– was released looong ago, so currently you can only have a recent DRAW version on a Mac if you have Windows installed in it via Parallels or some equivalent). It is much easier if you have a computer with Windows as an operating system.
A scanner for digitising your calligraphy into your PC.
CorelDRAW. You can install a demo from coreldraw.com. I think you have to register first to do so. It will be good and completely functional for 30 days after installation. For this tutorial I will be using the currently newest version, which is X7. Bear in mind that the sequence in which DRAW versions have appeared is the following: 1-12, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7.
Some capable photographic image editor, such as Photoshop or PhotoPaint, which is installed along with CorelDRAW.

4

Introductions / Hi! Mosh, from Mexico

« on: January 16, 2015, 01:46:13 PM »

Hello to everyone. I am a graphic designer in my forties and since a kid I've had an affinity for letters. I've created a couple of digital fonts for my own amusement, I was a member of the Typographische Gesellschaft München some time ago and even though most of my calligraphic training has been self-acquired, it is only after I took a couple of workshops (recently) that I am getting more comfortable with my writing. I stumbled upon this forum because a FB acquaintance mentioned it in a group I'm in.

I love cats, photography and... letters ; )


Thanks for accepting my membership in this forum. I can hope I can share what I know and learn what there is to learn.