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Computer Fonts
 
Although the focus of this website is on steel pens and writing memorabilia, the fact remains that we live in an age when computers have become so pervasive and omnipresent that we cannot avoid them.  In this context it is fair to consider how we can continue to enjoy copperplate handwriting, or calligraphy scripts, even when we are not using a pen. For example, why shouldn't we send an email in a copperplate handwriting, or write a document in Microsoft Word using a calligraphy script?
  
This webpage discusses digital calligraphy and copperplate fonts for use on PCs and Mac computers.  In computer terminology, a calligraphy script, or hand, or a copplerplate style, is referred to as a font.
 
Let's start by considering what copperplate fonts may already be in your computer and what you need to do to start using them.   Additionally, we will also consider what you need to do to ensure that the recipient of your document or e-mail may be able to read your file in the same font in which you created it.
 
Microsoft Windows
If your Operating System (OS) is any of the Windows versions, from Windows 95 to the latest Vista, and you have installed any of the Microsoft Office applications, then your PC is already loaded with a number of copperplate fonts, as well as a few calligraphy fonts. You can view them by going to the Control Panel and select the icon Fonts. A window opens up showing all the fonts installed in your PC in alphabetical order. If you double click on each font, you can view the whole set of letters and numbers belonging to that character set.  
 
The installation of Windows and Microsoft Office will provide about a dozen different copperplate and calligraphic fonts installed on your PC. Those that I consider good copperplate scripts are the following:
  1. Edwardian Script ITC
  2. French Script MT
  3. Kunstler Script
  4. Mistral
  5. Palace Script MT
  6. Commercial Script
  7. Script C

There are a few others which, in my view, are not so good and merit no further discussion.

 

On the calligraphy scripts there are three fonts which are good and worth using:

  1. Monotype Corsiva (a form of Italic)
  2. Old English Text MT (a form of Blackletters)
  3. Parchment (a form of Blackletters with ornate Capitals)

 

To select and use any of these fonts go to the Font Menu of your application and scroll through the alphabetical list until you find one of the above fonts. Select the font size of your choice, and you are ready to compose in the copperplate or calligraphy style; for a MS Word example, click here.  Owing to the lower resolution of most monitor displays relative to that of printers, copperplate font sizes lower than 16 points do not display the hairline strokes well enough on the screen. Thus, you will have to increase the font size to somewhere between 20 and 28 points. For printing there is no problem at all; any size of small font will print without loss of resolution.

 

MAC

Steve Jobs, the founder of the Apple Corporation, was inspired by the training he had received in Calligraphy to design the graphic interface of his first Macintosh computer. Mac computers were, historically, superior to Windows based PCs for artistic work; they included more choice of fonts, and introduced the first proportional font on computers against Windows that could only manage monotype fonts such as Courier. Nowadays, this differentiation has substantially faded away.  

 

List of calligraphic fonts shipped with the latest OS (Leopard) for Macs: 

  1. Copperplate
    1. Bickham Script Pro
    2. Brush Script MT
    3. Edwardian Script ITC
    4. Savoye LET
    5. Schoolhouse Cursive
    6. Snell Roundhand
  2. Calligraphy
    1. Blackmoor LET
    2. Lucida Calligraphy (Italic)
    3. Zepfino (Italic)
    4. Apple Chancery (Italic)
    5. Monotype Corsiva

 

Using Your Copperplate Fonts

  1. Application Programs (Windows or Mac)
    Any of the application programs within the Microsoft Office Suite, such as Word, Excel, Power Point, etc., will enable you to use whichever font you prefer. Normally, the program defaults into the font "Arial" or "Times New Roman."  The first is a sans-serif font whereas the second is a serif type font. You can change the default font to whichever one you like; just go to the preference menu and make the font you like your default-font.
  2. Creating Document Files
    Any document created in any of these standard fonts and sent as an attachment to an e-mail message will display in the same way you composed it, provided the font you chose is also resident in the recipient's PC or Mac. But, if that specific font has been removed from the computer of the person that receives your file, then it will display using the default font of that specific computer. To ensure that the attachment is read in the font you chose, it is necessary to embed your font with the attachment.
  3. Converting to Pdf Format
    A way round this problem is to convert your document created in, say, Word, to a portable document file, pdf, and send your message as a ".pdf" file instead of, say, a ".doc" file. In this case the document will be displayed and printed in the exact way in which you composed it. If you don't have a pdf converter program, such as Adobe Acrobat, you can download the free Openoffice Suite of programs, and use the Writer program, which is like MS Word, to convert to pdf as this application includes a pdf converter, and quite a good one, too, within the Writer application.  On the other hand, if you are using MS Word 2007 then you can download a new free add-in from Microsoft called "Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS add-in for 2007". As the title suggests, if you save a second copy of you doc file using the "Save As" option instead of the "Save" command, then an option menu comes up to save as a pdf document. Alas, this add-in Save as PDF does not work with earlier versions of Microsoft Office, such as 2002 and 2003.

 

 Buying Copperplate or Calligraphy Fonts

 

If your PC or Mac, for one reason or another, does not have copperplate or calligraphy fonts, then you can buy these fonts from computer shops or via the internet. Computer shops usually sell general CDROM font disks and the cursive fonts they include are generally poor. The easiest option is to log into specialist font houses and preview what you want to buy. The cost of a good copperplate font set can vary from £25 to £70. It seems excessive but to design a full character set font in copperplate requires some three months of full-time design work by a professional. If you bear that in mind, the high entry cost for a specific cursive font does justify its price.

 

In my spare time I have designed some calligraphy fonts such as Capitalis Elegans, Uncial and Carolingian. I plan to do the Roman Rustic font with the twist of the pen on the down vertical stroke. A trick of clever medieval scribes. 

 

Presently, I am designing a copperplate font which I call "Italian Textured" and thus far I have completed seven letters in about four weeks work. There are 121 more characters to go! We plan to offer these fonts for sale at the Penroom.

Here is an example of these first few letters:

Further corrections in symmetry and line thickness have to be made on all of them, except the M which is fine as it is!

 

The way I design each letter may be of interest for you to know.

One way is to actually write the letter with pen and paper and then proceed to scan the letter electronically to generate an image file such as jpeg or tiff. Subsequently this image has to be imported as a glyph (once an image file is imported into the character set of the font set under development, it is called glyph and not image) into the character set of this specific font-set and placed into the default folder that the Windows operating system reserves for all the fonts. The problem with scanning a written letter is that the resulting image file is full of jagged nodes: in other words, the edges are ragged like the coast of Norway. The time required to clean them up, to get a smooth edge, is often longer than actually drawing the glyph from scratch. Thus, I use Photoshop to draw the letter then save it as a jpeg file and subsequently import it as a glyph to the specific location for that character in the font-set.  Instead of Photoshop one can use Adobe Illustrator or Autocad; it really does not matter which drawing package one uses. Photoshop is a raster based drawing package, whereas the other two are vector based drawing packages. Ideally, a vector based drawing package is better than the raster based one. Scaling is much improved.   The problem is that the learning cycle to remember and reapply all the Autocad commands is quite long. Hence my choice of Photoshop.

 

Are you interested in Calligraphy and Copperplate PC Fonts?

Then please visit the SHOP page.