Digital Hand Lettering, the future of Calligraphy

It has been a few years since the handlettering trend took over social media, coffee shop black boards, logos, mugs, and everywhere inbetween. New script fonts and typefaces are released every day; instagram is covered in hand lettered quotes and flourished letters. It is impossible not to  notice how popular hand lettering has become. Artist, designers, hand letterers and calligraphists alike are now able to create letters and letter artwork digitally with special digital brushes and very smart tablets like the iPad Pro.

But was exactly is hand lettering?

First off, handlettering is not calligraphy; even if  both terms seem interchangeable. Hand Lettering and Calligraphy are like cousins, both done by hand but with a completely different technique. With the overflowing appearance of calligraphy, script  and hand lettered fonts, the distinction between them has melded, leaving the difference to be noticed mainly by professionals.

When someone says they are a calligraphist, they might also be a hand letterer but then again they might also be of very classic schooling and see hand lettering as a minor art form in comparison to calligraphy. On the other hand when someone says they are a hand letterer they could quite easily not be a calligraphist at all.

Let’s review the differences

Calligraphy is the art of writing with a pen nib and ink, a very precise and exact way of creating letter strokes. Learning calligraphy techniques is like learning to write, or rather the “art of writing”. Every calligraphist learns the same techniques but eventually develops their own style over time. Calligraphy and how it is mastered, dates back to the first written books and bibles meticulously copied by hand by expert monks using flat pens  with nibs that had to be replaced constantly and pots of liquid ink.

Before every letter stroke the nib had to be dipped in ink, that then settled more ink on the paper as the stroke went down and less as the stroke went up.  With the evolution of tools and pens alike, fountain pens were invented and the dipping in the ink became unnecessary, but the shape of the nigs still recreate the strokes in the same way. Modern calligraphists now choose if they will write with fountainpens, modern style nibs or oldstyle nibs. It doesn’t matter with tool they choose, they are still doing calligraphy, not hand lettering.

If hand lettering isn’t calligraphy, then what is it?  I mentioned that Calligraphy is the “art of writing”, following this idea, hand lettering is “art of drawing letters”. Hand lettering is like creating a piece of artwork, every letter is it’s own entity. The letters are placed together in a composition, the weight, height and embellishment of each letter depends on the entire composition. Differently to how in calligraphy each letter has it’s own upstroke and downstroke, hand lettered letters are drawn, filled, re-stroked until it reaches its perfect shape.

Digital Hand Lettering as Modern Calligraphy?

Calligraphy dates back to the hand written books and bibles from before the middle ages and beyond. When monks started to become bored with just the writing they started to decorate the edges of the pages and the first letters of chapters with animals, figures, plants and other elements that they were inspired with. This was called IILUMINATION and it was an offshoot of classic calligraphy. Using fountain pens that supplied constant ink and then watercolor brushes with ink cartridges turned calligraphy into a more modern and colorful affair, ever evolving into a new artform. Why not consider hand lettering as the offspring of calligraphy then?

Take this comparison for example: Classic ballet dancers will always have the “ballet form” to their body technique no matter what other dancing styles they learn. Dancers of any style who have never studied classic techniques will always benefit from some ballet instruction, helping with form, discipline and body structure.

Hand letterers who know nothing of calligraphy will have a very different style to those that have a calligraphy background. Digital Handlettering is closing that gap! Artists can now learn calligraphy techniques on their tablet, without getting their hands full of ink and using tons of paper. The upstrokes and downstrokes can be mastered digitally. Digital handlettering, I believe is the future of calligraphy.

Are you a hand letterer? A calligraphist? Have you tried digital handlettering to master the art of writing? Tell us about it in the comments below. Share this article with your followers if you found it interesting. See you next time!