Edward Johnston (1872-1944) played a pivotal role in reviving calligraphy at the end of the 19th century, breathing new life into this ancient art form.
His influential work laid down the foundations of modern calligraphy, covering the principles of writing, the anatomy of letters, and the tools required for the craft.
For many years the hand which we know today as ‘Copperplate’ was called ‘Roundhand’. Unfortunately that name is now sometimes used by calligraphers as an alternative for the ‘Foundational Hand’ first developed and popularised by Edward Johnston. The style is...
Numbers follow the characteristics of the main script. So, they should be sloped and based on an oval shape when written with Italics and round in shape and upright when written with Roman Capitals. Numbers can be either ranged or non-ranged. Ranged numbers...
After studying the proportions of the Foundational Hand letters, the next step is to start writing the letters. Each letter is constructed rather than written. The letters are made up of a combination of pen strokes, which are only made...
After studying Roman Capitals, next on the list is the Foundational Hand, sometimes called Roman Minuscules. The Foundational Hand are the lower-case letters written beside Roman Capitals. As with the Roman Capitals we need to study the proportion of the...
It is easy to understand why you put all your effort in to producing correctly proportioned letterforms. Whilst the letters are very important, bad letter and word spacing will distract from the lettering. Can you imagine looking at a piece...
Once the proportions of the Roman Capitals have been studied, the next step is to start writing the letters. Each letter is constructed rather than written. The letters are made up from a combination of pen strokes. With this style...
Roman Capitals are usually the first style of calligraphy to be taught to the students of a new class. This is not always the case and there have been debates in the past to which is the best style to...
