Script For Broad Nib

[JennHasan]

I have a Montblanc Meisterstuck Solitaire Sterling Silver Pinstripe Fountain Pen with a broad nib.

I want to improve my handwriting and found some lovely italic scripts. However, my nib's strokes - up/down and left/right stokes - look the same. (I'm not sure of the terminology.)

Can anyone recommend a nice script for this type of nib?

I've tried Cursive Italic and Spencerian but they look clunky. I've tried various script fonts in InDesign and those too look awful - Alex Bruch, Allura, Bickham, Chancery, Edwardian, Freebooter, Pushkin, Scriptina, Snell Roundhand, Tangerine and Zapfino.

Thank you all so much!

[dms525]

There are folks around who prefer broad, round nibs for everyday writing. I don't know what kind of script they use. If the nib were mine, I would have it ground to a cursive italic and use it for .... well, cursive italic script. That is my everyday handwriting style.

 

David

[inkstainedruth]

A lot of the fonts you mentioned, like Zapfino, aren't designed to be handwritten -- they're typography fonts.

And you're not going to get the thick and thin lines from something like Italic from a regular nib.

The best bet is going to be looking at standard hands such as Palmer. Or, if you really want to do something like Italic, you're going to need an italic nib. I don't know how easy it is to swap nibs on your pen, so you may need to either have the nib reground or just buy a different pen. If you don't want so spend a lot of money, look at something like a Lamy Safari or Pilot Metropolitan, and get one with a stub nib to see how you like actually writing with it.

The advantage to the Metropolitan is that they run under $20 US; the Safari will run you more -- roughly $30 depending on where you get it. Plus of course the cost of converters in each case. But the advantage to the Safari is that it's really easy to swap out nibs on them (figure another $10-15 each for nibs; so you can get a pen with a stub nib and then buy a regular nib for other writing).

A low end pen with an actual italic or stub nib is going to be less expensive in the long run than getting the nib reground, or seeing if you can swap the nib out directly from Montblanc.

Barring that, I'd say go buy a really cheap Speedball dip pen in an art store and practice with a variety of nibs until you get the look you want.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[BaronWulfraed]

Nothing for that nib as is. It will be a broad line at all angles. Good for generic signatures <G>

 

Any hand that relies upon line variation for look will require either: a stub or italic grind (for those hands when strokes longitudinal to the pen are thick and transverse strokes are thin: italic, black-letter, uncial) or a true flex nib (where one obtains thicker lines by pressing into the paper, often on down strokes, while producing hairlines on the curves/loops by letting the pen glide: copperplate [though true copperplate results in thick "upstrokes" as the engraving tool is pushed into the metal], maybe spencerian).

 

So far, i have one pen with what I'd consider a flex nib -- a very old Osmiroid calligraphy set (one where each nib came in the section, a la Sheaffer calligraphy sets; not the older screw in nib/feed style). It has a "copperplate" nib which requires relatively little pressure to produce line variation. The MonteVerde/Conklin OmniFlex and Noodlers "flex" nibs require too much pressure for the variation to be comfortable.

 

I have two pens with true italic nibs (somehow I didn't check my collection or I'd have ordered a different nib on the second -- since they are both from the same maker). True italic are not conducive to use for fast writing -- the slightest tilt results in the corner cutting into the paper. Stubs (and "cursive italic") tend to have rounded corners. I really need to repair my Stipula 22 -- it had the nicest italic nib I've encountered.

[JennHasan]

I'd like to keep the nib I have. I just want to find a nice script for it.

 

Any recommendations beyond the Palmer method?

 

Thanks!

Edited October 19, 2018 by JennHasan

[AlohaLani787]

I'd like to keep the nib I have. I just want to find a nice script for it.

 

Any recommendations beyond the Palmer method?

 

Thanks!

 

Take a look at the Strato Font. It seems tailored for a wider round tip nib.

[inkstainedruth]

 

Take a look at the Strato Font. It seems tailored for a wider round tip nib.

 

Strato is going to have the same issues as what the OP originally was looking at. It's NOT a handwriting font. The OP *may* be able to duplicate it somewhat, but that's not its primary purpose. No typesetting font is going to be right.

I had a Graphic Design professor who thought the coolest thing on the planet would be to design a new typeface. There's actually a lot that goes into designing a font: if you don't believe me, look at the crossbars on the lower case "t" in Strato (especially zooming in) -- there's no way that a normal B nib is going to make the slight widening of the cross bar from left to right, and a (semi-) flex nib not going to get the rounded ends.

There are other hands besides Palmer that may be conducive to what the OP wants. I seem to recall a discussion about some hand that is taught in France.

Forgot to suggest that the OP look at the Iampeth website, which has downloadable facsimiles of various penmanship manuals (don't look at the calligraphy and Spencerian ones -- look at Palmer and similar "business" hands.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[JennHasan]

Thank you. I will take a look at the Iampeth website and Ruth Morrisson.

[ardene]

 

Forgot to suggest that the OP look at the Iampeth website, which has downloadable facsimiles of various penmanship manuals (don't look at the calligraphy and Spencerian ones -- look at Palmer and similar "business" hands.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Wonderful suggestions.

 

There are folks around who prefer broad, round nibs for everyday writing. I don't know what kind of script they use. If the nib were mine, I would have it ground to a cursive italic and use it for .... well, cursive italic script. That is my everyday handwriting style.

 

David

 

I'd think they use their own handwriting for the most part. I do it with wide italics as well. Below a sample of a 2.3mm width where I use my own "font".

 

 

 

 

To the OP: when you read "broad pen calligraphy" people don't mean a B -or even BB- nib, they mean pens with very wide tips (usually above 1.5mm, a BB is around 1.1 to 1.2mm, a B is around 0.9mm in width) Below is the line variation of the above 2.3mm italic nib (horizontal vs vertical lines) compared to the uniform lines produced by a standard medium nib (around 0.6mm).

 

[AlohaLani787]

 

Strato is going to have the same issues as what the OP originally was looking at. It's NOT a handwriting font. The OP *may* be able to duplicate it somewhat, but that's not its primary purpose. No typesetting font is going to be right.

 

 

And that's exactly what I've been doing, working on duplicating Strato the best I can with broad nibs. I'm not concerned that the "t" cross isn't exact, because overall I like the look of the script and "close enough" is "good enough" for my purposes; however, I recognize it may not be for the OP and technically it's not a handwriting font.

[Ryan5]

You can totally write Italic with a B nib, it would just be monoline, and not what I would consider calligraphy, but totally doable.

[Inky.Fingers]

B nib can be used with any script. It is a matter of the x height. Write bigger. Mono italic, mono Palmer, mono fraktur...Etc...

 

Occasionally..It you are skilled with the pen...Line variation with that nib....

Edited December 15, 2018 by _InkyFingers