Inkscape Calligraphy

Inkscape 0.48 Windows 7



I just wore out my hand trying to create calligraphy with a mouse in Inkscape. Whew.
The above is a nice calligraphy font. ;)
Some day I'd like to buy a wacum tablet.

First of all, I wanted some kind of grid that would help me with proportion and angle.
There is free calligraphy guide paper that can be found on the Net when googled.
For example, here and here.

There is a grid in Inkscape (View, Grid).
Grid behavior is odd when zoomed.
The grid can be customized either globally (File, Inkscape Preferences, might require a restart) or locally (File, Document Properties, Grid Tab, New).
These settings will look like notebook paper:
Spacing X at 750, Spacing Y at 4 pixels (Grid units).

Inches Grid units as notebook paper would be: Spacing X at 8.5, Spacing Y at .3 (point 3).
(Regular notebook paper would have about 31-37 lines on a page if margin area were included.)
I then decreased Spacing X to add some vertical lines as well.

Inkscape Calligraphy Tut
(Online and also included with Inkscape download, see Help, Tutorials.)
Mentions slanted guides. Guides are created in Inkscape by dragging (horizontally, vertically, diagonally) off the rulers. Mouse hover over guide and read help text that pops up at bottom of screen for further instructions.

There is an Extension, Render, grid, which can be printed out.
Line Width at .1 (point 1), Horizontal at 750, Vertical at 20 looks like lined notebook paper.



I created four calligraphy presets:
TreeBranch
RaggedEdges
Oriental
Calligraphy
Inkscape didn't retain the presets because when I loaded Inkscape later only one created preset was there. I did screenshots of my settings. Just a warning.



Release Notes that mention Calligraphy Tool:
040 (Thinning, Fixation)
045 (Caps, Wiggle)
046 (Line Engraving - has example image)
047 (Presets)
(Edit, Find "calligraphy" within Firefox.)



ehow
Handwritten calligraphy videos here.



Some Calligraphy lettering/fonts to google.
Uncial
Batarde
Carolingia(n)
Flourished Italian
Gothic

Inkscape Manual
0.47 Calligraphy Improvements
Another Manual