Calligraphy Handbook

It is pretty thorough with a lot of hand (font) options. They’re beautiful and pretty easy. But there are certain things like making a nice serif that’s tricky. It would be nice if it had a little video on each letter and hand. Also, like the L, at the end where it ticks up and thicken on the right, how can I do that with a digital pen? Or even a calligraphy pen & nibs without changing nibs? Initially, it started great but then the app keeps registering my stroke and stops halfway and the whole page shifts instead. Maybe it’s my pen’s battery? I love that it’s free with possible upgrades. One thing I can’t stand are very limited apps for a free trial. Definitely worth a try!

* free version is basically just a sample and you’re not going to get much out of it, there is a small (under $5) one time charge to use the app as intended. No ads, no subscription, no endless series of in-app purchases. * variety of fonts, many many color options, some nice extras * I strongly recommend reading the user’s guide in “getting started”, there’s a lot that the app has to offer that won’t be obvious without it * I was basically just looking for somewhere where I could make letters calligraphy-style, without the wide side of the “pen” changing directions on me unexpectedly. So, obviously this app met that expectation but it also went way beyond it. And I thought I’d enjoy myself but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy myself this much. I downloaded this app maybe two days ago and have been using it more than I’ve been doing anything else other than sleeping. * the “words” section is prone to crashing, so don’t put a lot of effort into that section if you’re new to the app. When you use it more you get a sense of what causes it to crash and can usually avoid it crashing at bad times and losing your creations. * I don’t think I’ve had it crash when making art directly from “layers gallery” or “stencils models”. I enjoy tracing the lettrines (extra fancy letters) a lot. For some reason I can’t figure out you can get a grid or lines in that part of the app, but not the same sorts of lines you get in the practice sections of the app which is just weird imo. * This isn’t a shiny subscription based app with perfect function and new features all the time. It’s more like the early apps. Personally I think that’s a good thing. * it’s been idk a month and I still spend maybe an hour or two every day on this. Very calming.

I’ve been doing calligraphy for 40+ years. This is a great app for beginners and intermediate writers. The one drawback, IMO, is that the app grading is ridiculously exacting. I like to deviate, just a bit, to make my letters more “me.” With this app, creative flair is stifled. Also, if I want to get the letters for a certain words, the caps and lowercase letters are listed as different fonts, so I cannot practice someone’s name, for example. Very frustrating. I do love this app for practicing my calligraphy, though. It is so nice to be able to erase mistakes on the screen! :) IRL, calligraphy with ink and paper is not very forgiving with mistakes. This is a great app to learn to write beautifully!