Free calligraphy nib ladder/line generator

[Pelipen]

Hi,

 

I've been learning broad pen calligraphy, and one of the things I grew tired of quickly was drawing lines and nib ladders. I find them useful, so I can practice, a a a a a a a, b b b b b b b, c c c c c etc.

 

Also, sometimes I put the guide under good paper with a lighted background. Then I can use the lines as a guide, and when I take the guide out from underneath the good paper, it looks halfway decent. This saves me having to erase pencil lines later.

 

Since I like postscript so much, I decided to write a little routine to generate the guides to whatever specification I wanted. Then I thought other people might be interested, so I made a php web front end, and now it spits out a pdf document (US letter dimensions).

 

If anyone is interested, this is the link.

 

I'd like feedback if you find it useful, or why you don't. Sometimes guides can become a crutch. Anyway, if you do find it useful and think it could improve, let me know how, and I'll see what I can do to make it better. It's kind of a quick hack at the moment, but it works, and it's free.

 

Don't know if this is the best forum, but it fit reasonably well with creative expressions and writing.

 

Thanks.

[TMLee]

Hi Pelipen...

don't mean to dampen yr spirit but there is an existing website offering such an aid ...

 

http://www.incompetech.com/beta/linedGraphPaper/lined.html

[Pelipen]

My approach was a little different. Most graph/lined paper has either fixed distance line intervals, or is logarithmic etc. What I wanted was a specific set of lines which would match the "textbook" relative heights between the x-height, and say,the capital line vs. ascender. Ascenders of lower case are taller than the capitals in many calligraphy hands, and I find I goof it up a lot. Also, depending on how much flourishing a hand has, I wanted to be able to vary the distance between sets. So my nib ladder is customized for exactly the script I want to practice. Subtle difference, but it makes a difference to me.

 

Also, I included vertical lines at a user definable angle and spacing, to make it easier to be consistent with the slant of the text. The verticals can be turned on and off. So my spirits aren't dampened, because it works better for me, and well, I would have done it anyway. Most of my enjoyment comes in the building of something, not the end product. I can't tell how many times I scrapped something, just to redo it a little differently.

 

I attached a cropped image of what I was after, but thanks for posting the other link. I had done a bit of internet searching trying to find something.

[lefty928]

I've been playing with your line generator, Pelipen, and really like it. Having been a graphic designer in ancient times, I sometimes balk at ruling up paper for the smaller nib sizes, especially when trying to progress downwards through them all in one practice session.

 

Have had some difficulty getting the correct ascender and descender size, but with the very useful nib widths indicating height on the side, it hasn't caused a problem. I'm working on Carolingian, which has a subtle slant, so being able to customize the slant is cool.

[Aquarius]

Woohoo! :bunny1: This is very useful. Now I can customize the guide to fit my style instead of the other way around.

If I may make a suggestion; it would be very good if the results could be generated dynamically so that we could see the preview before having showed up in pdf format. It would be much faster and much more convenient.

[london]

Looks great! Thank you. Would it be possible to have an international version for us Europeans? One that is set for A4 paper size - 297mm x 210mm??

 

- Mark

[Pelipen]

I've been playing with your line generator, Pelipen, and really like it. Having been a graphic designer in ancient times, I sometimes balk at ruling up paper for the smaller nib sizes, especially when trying to progress downwards through them all in one practice session.

 

Have had some difficulty getting the correct ascender and descender size, but with the very useful nib widths indicating height on the side, it hasn't caused a problem. I'm working on Carolingian, which has a subtle slant, so being able to customize the slant is cool.

Glad you find it useful. One of the reasons I put the nib ladder on the side was so I could fine tune the width in mm.

 

One of the things I have in the works is to link it to a database of common mm values for standard nib brands. I think that would help, but I'm having trouble digging up size X for brand Y = Z mm. The resulting value would only be a suggested starting point, and would remain fully editable.

[Pelipen]

Woohoo! :bunny1: This is very useful. Now I can customize the guide to fit my style instead of the other way around.

If I may make a suggestion; it would be very good if the results could be generated dynamically so that we could see the preview before having showed up in pdf format. It would be much faster and much more convenient.

Excactly my goal. Make the tool work for you, not force you to conform to an ideal. You can always generate the textbook layout, but I find it nice to add personal touches.

 

I'll work on dynamic feedback. I had thought of using a plugin, but I don't like the thought of making everyone install some obscure 3rd party plug. I'll look into something real-time... what I probably could do fairly easily is add a preview button and generate a quick&dirty cropped jpg preview in a frame.

[Pelipen]

Looks great! Thank you. Would it be possible to have an international version for us Europeans? One that is set for A4 paper size - 297mm x 210mm??

 

- Mark

This is in the works. I had hardcoded some dimensions into the postscript source, because this started out just being a quick hack for me to use. Now I'm working on making the postscript a little cleaner. Since it's formula based to determine the optimal number of line-sets per page, the dimensions should be fairly flexible. I suppose in theory it would be possible to do A0 and use a paintbrush

 

AND... I moved to a country where A4 is standard, and US letter doesn't work for me any more either Obviously "fit to page" when printing isn't useful here.

[lefty928]

One of the things I have in the works is to link it to a database of common mm values for standard nib brands. I think that would help, but I'm having trouble digging up size X for brand Y = Z mm. The resulting value would only be a suggested starting point, and would remain fully editable.

 

For dip pen nibs or calligraphy pens? I have some of that info, if you want to PM me.

[Pelipen]

I have a version which now has A4 support, and previews are in the works. You can see what the preview will look like, but if you click the button, you'll just get garbage. I'm trying to figure out why it works on my server, but not on this host. The A4/Letter pdf should work though. Any feedback would be helpful.

I should mention this uses inline forms for the preview window, so may not be 100% browser compatible. I only test against mozilla based browsers being a Linux nut. Feedback ob browser issues is welcome as well.

Link to new version. The old link still exists also.

[polyglot]

Allow me to say only this: you rock.

 

Edit: actually I shall say something else too. You should release the source under the GPL or somesuch similar license.

Edited November 17, 2006 by polyglot

[CatBookMom]

I have a version which now has A4 support, and previews are in the works. You can see what the preview will look like, but if you click the button, you'll just get garbage. I'm trying to figure out why it works on my server, but not on this host. The A4/Letter pdf should work though. Any feedback would be helpful.

I should mention this uses inline forms for the preview window, so may not be 100% browser compatible. I only test against mozilla based browsers being a Linux nut. Feedback ob browser issues is welcome as well.

Link to new version. The old link still exists also.

 

 

Thank you! I really like the adjustable features; the other generators I've found so far are for much, much larger lettering or writing..

Edited January 24, 2011 by CatBookMom

[fiberdrunk]

Hi,

 

Since I like postscript so much, I decided to write a little routine to generate the guides to whatever specification I wanted. Then I thought other people might be interested, so I made a php web front end, and now it spits out a pdf document (US letter dimensions).

 

If anyone is interested, this is the link.

 

I'd like feedback if you find it useful, or why you don't. Sometimes guides can become a crutch. Anyway, if you do find it useful and think it could improve, let me know how, and I'll see what I can do to make it better. It's kind of a quick hack at the moment, but it works, and it's free.

 

 

This is great! Thanks! I was just fussing with trying to calculate for guide sheets only last night. This looks infinitely easier to use!

[Bronze]

- Very nice, thanks!

[ladycaruso]

 

I'd like feedback if you find it useful, or why you don't. Sometimes guides can become a crutch. Anyway, if you do find it useful and think it could improve, let me know how, and I'll see what I can do to make it better. It's kind of a quick hack at the moment, but it works, and it's free.

 

 

I know it's years later, but I just HAD to come and say this tool is AWESOME (I'm using your second version). I've tried other guideline makers, but this one is the best I've tried, and I love the amount of control I have over things, after just a little playing around to get the hang of things. Thanks a lot!

[Chevalier]

I made/collected guidesheets for my students the last couple of years ... and now you made this. Where have you been before? This is really helpful.

[htom]

Oh my. "Like" does not begin to describe my delight. What a fantastic tool! I, too, hope you somehow do an open source release.

 

Requests -- radio buttons to make particular lines go away, be dotted (at say x height spacing), or be dashed (alternating x height ink and not inked.)

[CaiusMerlynBrittanicus]

Is there a two column gridsheet generator lying around somewhere?

[gardener]

Hi,

 

I've been learning broad pen calligraphy, and one of the things I grew tired of quickly was drawing lines and nib ladders. I find them useful, so I can practice, a a a a a a a, b b b b b b b, c c c c c etc.

 

Also, sometimes I put the guide under good paper with a lighted background. Then I can use the lines as a guide, and when I take the guide out from underneath the good paper, it looks halfway decent. This saves me having to erase pencil lines later.

 

Since I like postscript so much, I decided to write a little routine to generate the guides to whatever specification I wanted. Then I thought other people might be interested, so I made a php web front end, and now it spits out a pdf document (US letter dimensions).

 

If anyone is interested, this is the link.

 

I'd like feedback if you find it useful, or why you don't. Sometimes guides can become a crutch. Anyway, if you do find it useful and think it could improve, let me know how, and I'll see what I can do to make it better. It's kind of a quick hack at the moment, but it works, and it's free.

 

Don't know if this is the best forum, but it fit reasonably well with creative expressions and writing.

 

Thanks.

Just found your line generator and it is brilliant. I did produce something myself on ms word (just using the table function) but this is brilliant, so much better. Great for practising and also as you say placing under the paper you are working on. Thanks again.