To follow up on this: http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=66701

Hopefully this is not against FPN rules because of the "nudity," but above is my first manuscript scribble. Don't try to make sense of the text, it is nonsense from jumbled paragraphs in an article that was lying on my desk at the time. I was just trying to sketch out the overall look.

This was done in a Clairefontaine French-ruled notebook.

The orange text is with a Lamy Joy 1.5 stub;
the light blue-gray text is with a Rotring Art Pen 1.3 stub;
the darker blue-green text is with a Morrison Gold Overlay Flex Nib



The above was my first try at developing a special alphabet system. I have since improved it, and will post newer vesions when I have a chance to photograph the most recent one. The alphabet is a simplified combination of Schwabacher and Fraktur. An important criteria, is that the text is simple and unadorned enough to be legible to contemporary viewers, yet still has the proper feel to it.

In any case, there it is; my quest has begun and thank you again for all the input on the previous thread.

I don't know. I think textura would be more appropriate.

However it's very nice indeed.

I like Textura and it contributed to my inspiration for this font as well. But the problem with all 3 fonts (Textura, Fraktur and Schwabacher), is that some of the letters are hard to read for people who are not familiar with calligraphy. And I need viewers who are completely unfamiliar with gothic fonts to be able to easily read the text. So I need to modify many of the letters while maintaining a faux "feel" of a medieval font.

Also, I need this font to remain stable in 3 alphabets: English, German, and Cyrillic. True Textura, Fraktur and Schwabacher are not easily applicable to Cyrillic letters. And an authentic Church-Slavonic type of Cyrillic font does not look right on Latin letters. So the font I came up with looks neutral enough for both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. This is important, because I need to be able to switch between the English, German and Russian languages in the same text, without changing the look of the font.

So those are my criteria. But by no means do I suggest that I am pleased with the results of my writing so far; obviously I need lots of practice before it is anywhere near acceptable. How long did it take you to get to a decent level with Uncial?

I see your point. Well, keep trying.

I don't think I reached a decent level, however the uncial seemed very easy to me. I dunno why, it's said to be one of the hard ones, but I find it much easier than say italic or textura.

I do not know whether anybody has suggested the book by David Harris The Art of Calligraphy? I haven't seen the book talked about much here, but it might fit your purpose. The author basically goes through the history of western writing styles and reconstructs the various alphabets with a very instructive guide as to their construction. He presents at least two dozens of early manuscript styles in the book - and most importantly for you some of them are plainly readable and might easily be tweaked to Cyrillic...

Hope it might help you, Zed

PS In a way the book, is not all that different form his own book The Calligrapher's Bible: 100 Complete Alphabets and How to Draw Them which contains also Cyrillic alphabets... So you might consider looking at this book too.

Thanks for that tip, I will definitely get this book once I am back in English-speaking lands.
Research on medieval type-face can really pull you in, as many discover.

What an interesting beginning for what promises to be a fascinating project! I'm completely out of my element when Textura, Fraktur and Schwabacher are the scripts of choice, so I daren't give any advice, but I'm eager to see where this will lead you. I am curious about the inks, though: is the reddish-golden ink Noodler's Apache Sunset, by any chance?

Hi,

In the text, the orange ink is Private Reserve Orange Crush; the lighter blue-gray ink is a mix of Noodler's Lexington Gray and Legal Lapis; the darker blue-green ink is a mix of Pelikan Blue, Green, and Black.

In the picture, the red is Noodler's Swishmix Burgundy; the green is Private Reserve Avacado; and the brownish is Herbin Cacao de Bresil.

I have not tried Noodler's Apache Sunset, but would like to see how it compares with both PR Orange Crush and Herbin Ambre Birmanie, which I do have. Should be especially interesting to compare them in italic nibs!

Many thanks for the details concerning the inks; my list of inks that I must try one day has grown a bit as a consequence! I hadn't realized that PR Orange Crush yielded such spectacular variations in colour. I haven't tried Noodler's Apache Sunset in an italic pen, either, but I hope to do so soon... Happy experimenting!