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But actually being able to do it with your hands is nothing more than a party trick. Skill in a vector editor is key, and some domain knowledge, but surely not

But actually being able to do it with your hands is nothing more than a party trick. Skill in a vector editor is key, and some domain knowledge, but surely not actually hand writing beautifully?

sjy 10y ago
Some people earn income by preparing handwritten calligraphic wedding invitations and signs; plenty of graphic designers (and software developers, for that matter) use paper in the process of preparing a digital product. It's no more of a party trick than playing a musical instrument.
- tehwalrus 10y ago
  Sure, but the ancestor comment mentioned "typography". I've never heard that used to refer to hand-written stuff (although, perhaps in the past hand-designed stuff.)
  - tribby 10y ago
    calligraphy is part of the typographic process. typography has been around for much longer than vector graphics. font forging, typesetting, type design -- pick any part of the "stack," and go as far back as the northern song dynasty, if you like -- has always involved a lot of hand work. thinking of typography as a superset of calligraphy -- inextricable and dependent on one another -- might help your understanding.
tribby 10y ago
this is also incorrect. type designers usually start with drawing letters by hand, in fact. this is how it's taught to MA students at the university of reading and at the royal academy in the hague, NL (i.e. the most respected programs that churn out designers to places like monotype). even (especially?) in preliminary sketching phases done with pencil, the drawing method used is specifically meant to best mimic the stroke made with traditional tools. when it comes to more ornate lettering -- like a script -- hand tools are even more common to start with. it's a bit less common for someone to finish a script before digitizing it and making it suitable for the screen (usually you do a few key letters by hand and can figure out the rest on a computer from there), but it does still happen more than you seem to think.
- tehwalrus 10y ago
  Thank you, that's actually pretty awesome :)

But actually being able to do it with your hands is nothing more than a party trick. Skill in a vector editor is key, and some domain knowledge, but surely not actually hand writing beautifully?

sjy 10y ago

Some people earn income by preparing handwritten calligraphic wedding invitations and signs; plenty of graphic designers (and software developers, for that matter) use paper in the process of preparing a digital product. It's no more of a party trick than playing a musical instrument.

tehwalrus 10y ago
Sure, but the ancestor comment mentioned "typography". I've never heard that used to refer to hand-written stuff (although, perhaps in the past hand-designed stuff.)
- tribby 10y ago
  calligraphy is part of the typographic process. typography has been around for much longer than vector graphics. font forging, typesetting, type design -- pick any part of the "stack," and go as far back as the northern song dynasty, if you like -- has always involved a lot of hand work. thinking of typography as a superset of calligraphy -- inextricable and dependent on one another -- might help your understanding.

tribby 10y ago

this is also incorrect. type designers usually start with drawing letters by hand, in fact. this is how it's taught to MA students at the university of reading and at the royal academy in the hague, NL (i.e. the most respected programs that churn out designers to places like monotype). even (especially?) in preliminary sketching phases done with pencil, the drawing method used is specifically meant to best mimic the stroke made with traditional tools. when it comes to more ornate lettering -- like a script -- hand tools are even more common to start with. it's a bit less common for someone to finish a script before digitizing it and making it suitable for the screen (usually you do a few key letters by hand and can figure out the rest on a computer from there), but it does still happen more than you seem to think.

tehwalrus 10y ago
Thank you, that's actually pretty awesome :)