Calligraphy Resources – Fine Illuminated Manuscripts Graphics for Calligraphers

AlfredoM graphics are a resource for calligraphers, lettering artists, papermakers, typographers, graphic designers, paper decorators, scrapbook makers, rubberstamps makers, greeting card makers, book designers and artist bookmakers.

Borders, dividers, frontispieces, title pages, ribbons and laces, decorative elements, drop caps, illuminated capital letters and more.

Some use may require a special license; please consult with us if your work involves many copies publications or large quantity of our graphics in a single project.

Calligraphy and calligraphy styles.

Calligraphy original meaning is handwriting, penmanship; but has come to define fine writing, beautiful writing, harmonious and beautiful forms of letters, ornamented and decorated words on the page with flourishes and more. Calligraphy today is the art of making beautiful or elegant handwriting.

This was the way books were made before the invention of the mobile characters that gave to the printing press a new meaning, approximately 500 years ago. A scribe working in a scriptorium handwrote each copy. Quills and ink were used and handwriting was done on vellum and parchment. The lettering style reflected the period: uncial, half uncial, insular majuscule, insular minuscule, Roman majuscule, square capital, Carolingian, blackletter, rotunda, humanist, etc.

There are many and many more calligraphy styles and the expert calligraphers can identify with certain precision the place of origin and the period of a manuscript just examining the script.

Calligraphy, Lettering and Typeface Design.

Calligraphy today is not just beautiful writing, it is also a form of expression and a form of art. The artist calligrapher can create a poster, a book cover… a message and a work of art in itself just using letters and strokes. Letters are not always decifrables and the message sometime is carried by the emotional appearance of the work and not by the words. Graffiti is a form of calligraphy, often considered expensive by the owners of the walls and other surfaces.

Lettering is the art of using or making letters. The term can also be used to describe calligraphy, drawn lettering, carving letters, typeface design, logo design, and etc. How the form of the letters carries the message.

Typeface Design the early type face, starting with Gutenberg's blackletter and the early Venetian typefaces were based on the imitation of the calligraphy of the period. Metal type took the place of calligraphy (lead at the beginning and for a long period). Typeface design was the work of very few experts working for type foundries. It was a very long and expensive process from the design to the production of the punches and of the actual metal characters. Now, through the use of the personal computers and workstations, more people are involved in the design of alphabets and original logos. But as in the beginning of the printing press, many typefaces start with hand drawing: calligraphy.

Despite what many purists can say about the use of the pen and ink contra the use of computers, computers are just tools like the pen and the brush in the hand of the designers. It is still the human hand that does the work.

Long long time ago, when I was a little kid I was fantasying how beautiful could have been my life if I was borne at the time of the Romans and the Roman Empire; an other kid, not much older than me, woke me up from that dream. He said: “ what if you were born slave?”
I still remember that episode like it was yesterday.

How many people do you think ever saw a book in their life during the Middle Age.

Welcome to the age of computers that bring things at the level of every pocket.

And if the hand is not so expert and uses parts supplied by others, and if the hand is expert and uses parts supplied by others to cut time and cost: SO BE IT

And if the printing press killed the beautiful hand decorated books and now everybody can afford to learn how to read and by a book: SO BE IT.

And if the work of a graphic artist is made more affordable trough the use of computers and pre-canned material like clip art: SO BE IT.

And if someone cannot afford a calligrapher or a designer and a commercial printer but still can make his/her own invitations on a home computer: SO BE IT

Welcome to the age of computers that bring things at the level of every pocket, including Illuminated Manuscripts Art.