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Beautiful Handwriting, Lettering and Calligraphy
Handwriting seems to have lost some of its attraction over the last years. Nobody writes beautiful handwritten letters, and uses digital means of communication with smileys, abbreviations and standard lettering instead. And that’s a pity. Since handwriting is unique, it has a tremendous expressive power a standard lettering isn’t able to achieve.
More than that, handwritten text can be incredibly gorgeous. In fact, there is nothing more valuable than a beautiful handwritten letter sent to your beloved ones. And this post attempts to prove just that.
In the overview below you’ll find excellent examples of beautiful handwriting, creative lettering and professional calligraphy. It’s really amazing to see what one can create out of simple letters drawn with a pencil on a small piece of paper.
For further typographic inspiration you can browse through our previous posts
- Breathtaking Typographic Posters showcases over 50 breathtaking typographic posters designed by artists across the globe. We feature Oriental, Iranian, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese and Russian typographic posters.
- Typography in Motion with excellent examples of typography embedded into movies and videos,
- Hand-Drawing Style in Modern Web Design demonstrates excellent examples of hand-drawing style in modern web design.
[Offtopic: by the way, did you already get your copy of the brand new Smashing Book?]
Calligraphy
1800s Lettering Sketchbook:Journal 14
Beautiful calligraphy from 1800s.
Experiment with photographic paper_03
Written by Marina Marjina, a type designer and letterer from Russia.
Claredon Press, Flower
A book cover from 1987. Published by Claredon Press. Created by Sheila Waters.
Cronica de los reyes catolicos, XVI century.
A Spanish manuscript from Berkeley, University of California, The Bancroft Library.
Extra: Natasha Mileshina
Natasha Mileshina’s work. Moscow, Russia.
Daily Type
Calligraphy by Vera Evstafieva.
Tom Gourdie’s gallery
Shakespeare’s Sonnets by Tom Gourdie. Handwriting master’s pieces from 1980s.
French Notarial Handwriting
From Michael Twyman’s 26 November 2007 presentation.
Scripture and Calligraphy
By Denis Brown.
Handwriting, Doodling and Lettering
British Ariways B/W Font
Alex Trochut’s work for British Airways. Sexy, sweet and beautiful lettering!
Panasonic Advertisement
The design by the agency Lowerporta from Chile. An advertisement for Panasonic digital devices.
Art and Life
Joei Lau’s project. Beautiful curves.
all the best
Wishes from Ale Paul.
Estrella Levante Posters
Tasty typography!
Extraverage x The KDU
Karoly Kiralyfalvi, graphic designer from Budapest, Hungary.
Typography
Jeff Finley’s work.
Split in Two
Created by Pawel Janczarek.
Doodles!
Beautiful doodles from Austin, TX.
Handwriting
By Yury Ostromentsky.
takin’ it
Lettering design by Jon Contino.
“R”
By Zeptonn, an illustrator from the Netherlands.
1961 William Mitchell Pen Catalog
inspiredology.com | inspiredology.com
Zapf Games 2005
By Alexander Utkin.
Marian Bantjes: Yale Alumni Magazine
Funeral of the Heart by Leah Hayes – front cover
Experiments with type
Typolight
Type with light.
Feliz Natal | Merry Christmas
By Marina Chaccur. “The 2006 online christmas card started being very real. In the beginning the letters were drawn by hand, then after the final layout was chosen, the white beads were arranged onto a paper with a very pale outline of the lettering. In the end, the paper was photographed, the image was altered in Photoshop, and the beads went back to the package.”
Arabic Poesie
Type and light.
Caligrafia na pele
Calligraphy on the body.
Daily Type
Hmmm, tasty!
Stephanie DeArmond – Gallery
Typographic sculptures.
Handwriting Videos
Sources and Resources
- Jalalaspages Calligraphical Album
- The Gallery of Calligraphy
In Russian. - DailyType.ru
The showcase of Russian typographers. - Handmade Typography Flickr Pool
Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com), an online magazine dedicated to designers and developers.
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Loading ...- 64 Comments
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April 7th, 2008 1:59 amCalligraphy is nice to look at, but for any other purpose I always feel it is too hard to distinguish. It is generally too hard to read at a quick glimpse.
- 3April 7th, 2008 2:04 am
like all the others – a great, fantastic post. thanks (i like the first one)
- 4April 7th, 2008 2:34 am
bloody good!
- 5April 7th, 2008 3:27 am
Some great stuff. On of my favorite typographers is John Langdon with his ambigrams. Really amazing work.
- 6April 7th, 2008 3:28 am
Sorry for being the stick in the mud, but your RSS feed generally has some html problem in it. This time it’s an “Irreparable invalid markup (’‘) in entry.”
PS: Nice post, as usual. :)
PPS: I don’t know how else to draw your attention to this without posting it in a comment. I hope you delete this after reading it. - 7April 7th, 2008 3:51 am
Dope post.
Really refreshing inspiration source.
- 8April 7th, 2008 4:29 am
You guys post some great stuff, but how about splitting up your articles or editing some things out? A lot of your posts are just overwhelming. Too much to take in all at once.
- 9April 7th, 2008 4:49 am
Great post, for anyone thinking of improving their day-to-day penmanship, I found this site – full of resources: http://www.iampeth.com/lessons.htm
- 10April 7th, 2008 5:01 am
Arabic calligraphy looks great. Anyone got any tips on how to recreate something like it?
- 11April 7th, 2008 5:08 am
BORING! we want posts about webdesign, tutorials and showcases of great websites. this doesnt get me anywhere…
- 12April 7th, 2008 5:27 am
Just wanted to say that your posts, including this one are just amazing. A great source of inspiration. As a matter of fact I consider smashing magazine the best source of webdesign resources!
To the rest of you guys, have any of you any idea what kind of font is used on Hostpattern (www.hostpattern.com) logo? I am searching for few hours now without any success.
- 13April 7th, 2008 5:30 am
Great post
@ Hannes
Your comment is boring! Ever thought about that you might draw a little inspiration out of posts like that which you could use in your webprojects? And dont say “we want” because its “you want”
- 14April 7th, 2008 5:35 am
Absolutely stunning collection.. thanks for this.
- 15April 7th, 2008 6:04 am
I wrote my handwriting out, scanned it, sent it to my brother on the other side of the planet and he sent it back as a ttf.
Fake my handwriting, if you like:
jamesspratt.org/blog/2008/02/07/fake-my-handwriting/
- 16April 7th, 2008 6:10 am
Posts like this are why I love this site.
- 17April 7th, 2008 6:54 am
What about web design? I thought this site was about that.
- 18April 7th, 2008 7:04 am
I don’t usually comment on here, but I want to balance out the discussion away from the naysayers. Typography is an essential part of good design. No true designer would bash typography the way some people here have today. Many thanks to Smashing Magazine for covering all aspects of aesthetically pleasing design, even the ones amateurs might scoff at and find boring. It was a great post, and very inspiring to me. Please post more content like this from time to time!
- 19April 7th, 2008 7:07 am
@ mikemike: This is inspiration, which falls squarely in the realm of design. I for one would like to see even more inspirational posts. :)
- 20April 7th, 2008 7:15 am
What a surprise it was to see a page of my sketchbook on an RSS feed I read!
Thanks. :)
If it matters–my doodles are no longer from Austin, TX, as I live in NYC now.Johanna
PS-
http://www.teplin.com is pretty interesting - 21April 7th, 2008 9:07 am
@ mikemike: you obviously do not frequent this site often enough to assume Smashing is only about webdesign.
this post is wonderful! how the hell am i supposed to get anything done today now?
- 22April 7th, 2008 10:29 am
Fun post! Thanks.
- 23April 7th, 2008 10:31 am
why does it tell me that the videos no longer exist?
- 24April 7th, 2008 11:12 am
Beutiful post, great smashingmagazine…
- 25April 7th, 2008 11:13 am
Very nice post – some stunning examples of calligraphy.
Thanks :)
- 26April 7th, 2008 3:27 pm
very nice.. gr8 effort…
- 27April 7th, 2008 3:52 pm
I’m dismayed that a Smashing Design would put together a list like this, yet have no mention of graphic design legend Tim Girvin (www.girvin.com). He was one to champion translation of calligraphic design and storytelling to the brand/interactive/online space while most of us were still in grade school. Unforgivable.
- 28April 7th, 2008 4:21 pm
Joei Lau is the creator of the Scriptina Font?
- 29April 7th, 2008 5:16 pm
Epic. Thanks.
- 30April 7th, 2008 5:27 pm
Very inspirational. Yesterday I saw this doodled type that I thought was pretty hot too. All such great pieces, thanks for sharing.
- 31April 7th, 2008 5:36 pm
Very inspirational post!
Alex Trochut spoke at Sydney’s SP08 last weekend. His work has definitely inspired me to create my own typefaces, where possible.
- 32April 7th, 2008 7:04 pm
I was disappointed that any examples from the Book of Kells were omitted. Kept at Trinity College in Dublin, the Book of Kells has numerous examples of European Biblical calligraphy at it finest.
- 33April 7th, 2008 9:18 pm
great post! thanks SM!
- 34April 7th, 2008 9:43 pm
The goobers unable to appreciate the value of an art form as richly textured and various as those shown here actually give goobers a bad name. I hope for their sakes that they’ve become capable of eptitude, for they seem certainly shielded from becoming educated.
If incapable of appreciating what’s been gathered with so much obvious care and affection, go collect your own magazine, gather an audience, then hear how well we like what you’ve done. Therein lies the rub. That would take an educated person witih a various background to pull off.
I have new appreciation for the depths of your shallowness.
- 35April 8th, 2008 2:48 am
Have you checked the work of Claude Dieterich? He thaught me Calligraphy a few years ago, and is magnificent!
http://www.claudedieterich.com
He is a French Calligraphist that lives in San Francisco. - 36April 8th, 2008 8:31 am
Thank´s Smashing Magazine!
- 37April 8th, 2008 12:50 pm
Some of these examples are not credited to the artists who created them. For instance, the yellow/black “Clarenden Press Flower” is the work of Sheila Waters, world renowned calligrapher, teacher and author of the book “Foundations of Calligraphy.” http://waterslettering.com/
- 38April 8th, 2008 2:01 pm
Clare(n)don Press Flower
This is my artwork, executed in 1987 and was published in the book “Florilege” by Alain Mazeran, in two facing pages (74 and 75) of a diptych of winter and summer, the two using the whole poem of “The Idle Flowers” by Robert Bridges, the image above being the second side, representing “summer” the first half representing “winter”. It was never a cover. I was one of the two judges of the calligraphic artwork submitted for inclusion in “Florilege” (see page 154). I have not been credited here, nor on the 4 images gallery website, presumably being your source. In “Florilege” this work was noted as being copyrighted by The Clarendon Press (note spelling), Oxford, GB. I have no idea how Clarendon Press got hold of it, as publication in “Florilege” was the first, and only, publication of the diptych to my knowledge.
I still own the original artwork and it is my copyright, no-one else’s. Please rectify omission of a credit to me as the artist and notify any publication source that has obtained it from you or that you send it to. Thank you.
Sheila Waters
April 8, 2008(SM) Thank you, Sheila, and sorry for any inconvenience! The article was updated.
- 39April 8th, 2008 5:09 pm
If you don’t see how this post relates to web design and design in general then maybe you should get a new hobby.
ps: That “10 ways to get a job” piece is amazing!
- 40April 9th, 2008 5:16 am
Wonderful article! Very inspiring.
- 41April 10th, 2008 2:30 am
Yeah man…. Alex Trochut rocks! again…..
- 42April 11th, 2008 1:39 pm
Right, three examples, but only one really credited to him. The one titled “Typography” and the Rolling Stone’s (Rolled Gold) cover are his as well.
- 43April 15th, 2008 7:15 am
Super talented artists – excellent collection of type.
- 44May 10th, 2008 10:18 am
This is sooooo nice…
- 45May 29th, 2008 10:37 pm
They are amazing works.
i am very much inspired by this - 46July 28th, 2008 12:23 am
nice , impressive . . . . hoping to see more
- 47July 28th, 2008 12:26 am
the Arabic prototype is very bad , , , while other images are so creative
- 48
- 49August 14th, 2008 10:15 pm
First time i seen this type of beautiful-handwriting
very nise!
I want to add some example of devnagri scrip (marathi)lettering
pl advice about this - 50August 25th, 2008 8:46 pm
Although I am flattered that my acrylic painting from 2003 entitled, “Digeridoo Festival” was showcased in your article, you failed to request permission to use the image. The image was taken from my Flickr account without my consent or knowledge, despite being clearly marked as copyrighted.
I still own the original artwork and it is my copyright, all rights reserved. Please rectify omission of a credit to me as the artist and notify any publication source that has obtained it from you or that you send it to.
Thank you,
Erin K. Nolan
August 25, 2008 - 51August 30th, 2008 9:43 am
UPDATE: Thank you for changing the link to “Didgeridoo Festival” to read “Erin K. Nolan.” I appriciate you kind follow-through and cooperation!
(SM) Thank you, Erin, indeed, the article was updated.
- 52September 7th, 2008 5:37 pm
I have never seen such an exciting and awesome works before in my life. Its looks so good and crazy and these people who have done these calligraphy work, I think they have a very deep creativity. These may be preserved as a memorable work of these guys who made it.
I wish these people to grow furthur in there life on calligraphy.
- 53October 9th, 2008 4:18 am
very nice site
- 54November 1st, 2008 4:29 am
day by day i find more materpieces at this unique site
- 55December 21st, 2008 11:16 am
I love the old manuscripts.
Does anyone know of Photoshop tutorials to help clean up calligraphy for digital printing? I don’t know the program terribly well and most of the tutorials aren’t focused on hand lettering. When I need to scan lettering, I spend more time cleaning smudges and smoothing lines than creating the original work! I would appreciate any help.
- 56February 8th, 2009 6:35 am
Incredible!
I cannot believe how wonderful these are!
The “R” one is super cool.
Great Web page, it really inspired me! - 57April 10th, 2009 7:49 am
i dont know white handwriting is the best
- 58April 17th, 2009 11:49 am
Hi from Estonia :) .. wow, super! :) very beautiful pics! … it’s also hard work to do smth like this. Väga kaunid pildid! :)
- 59April 27th, 2009 8:51 pm
Gee, I read the whole thing. I started hand composing for letterpress sixty years ago and stopped when I found how difficult it was to have fonts designed and cut for what I really wanted to print. The love of typography is still there, and I guess I waited long enough to do it digitally!! Is there a senior’s discount for typography classes on line?
- 60June 21st, 2009 12:18 am
I love calligraphy , i u too love it
- 61August 10th, 2009 4:51 am
Nice stuff there. I love handwriting as art perhaps all the more b/c my own handwriting is such a disaster! The Magic Calligraphy was amazing. That guy writes more beautifully upsidedown than i do rightsideup!
- 62August 20th, 2009 4:24 am
amazing and interesting posts.
I suggest also this website (wonderful things!)
link (www.gentlepeople.it) - 63January 12th, 2010 1:16 am
Simply amazing!!!!
- 64February 8th, 2010 12:26 am
HEY ED!I AM 14 YEAR OLD.I LOVE OUR MAGAZINE….IT IS WORLD BEST MAGAZINE MY REQUEST IS THAT PLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ PINUP A POSTER OF ashley tisdalePLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..MAY ALLAH BLESS YOU.YOU ROCK
- 00
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lovely post,
esspecially the Arabic calligraphy part.
such an unrecognized but just dope style.