French Script

[caliken]

This is a small sample of the lettering style known as French Script. It's not difficult to write and it's certainly a bit different and legible....but I'm not sure if I like it. I've posted it here for comments and opinions, please. It was written with a Rotring Artpen with an italic nib.

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/FrenchScript5.jpg

[Peter from Sherwood Park]

Ken, your example looks very much like my Grandfather's normal writing. He would have learned this in school in Southampton in the 1890s. Was this style popular in southern England in late Victorian times?

[Fernan]

I love it.

 

It's some form of round hand that, if I am not mistaken, and according to what I have read, seems to have been preferred in France and Italy in past centuries. I have been practicing some form of it for the past few months. The problem is that I should get myself a good pen with an italic medium or broad nib.

 

Your hand is disciplined. One can see that you have learned to control it through years of practice.

 

Thank you for this sample. I would love to have a complete sample of the alphabet, both minuscule and majuscule, as a guide.

 

 

Fernan

[katim]

It's immaculately written and, as with Fernan, it makes me think of round hand as the basis of the style. However, it has additional references to other hands - the looped ascenders of copperplate and an almost uncial 'd'. I, too, would love to see a complete alphabet if you're willing to produce one - or perhaps a reference to where it's to be found?

As to liking it, I'm not sure, either! It's highly legible but somehow misses being as attractive as those 'reference' hands. One for very occasional use, I suspect - or for one of those occasions where a French touch is required!

[Pensee]

I've been working on coming up with my own style of 'art nouveau' script so I love it!

 

Might be just the thing I've been looking for, although I wouldn't be able to match such broad lines w/xf or f nibs I use.

 

--Bruce

[HDoug]

I love it.

 

It's some form of round hand that, if I am not mistaken, and according to what I have read, seems to have been preferred in France and Italy in past centuries. I have been practicing some form of it for the past few months. The problem is that I should get myself a good pen with an italic medium or broad nib.

 

Actually, when I saw caliken's example (or perhaps exemplar is a better word), I immediately recalled your post here. I hope you don't mind me linking to it. The roundness of the minuscules and the upright ascenders/descenders give it a very distinct and legible ... "charm" might be a good word. Anyway, I enjoy contemplating the script much.

 

Caliken, is that diagonal combination ligature crossbar a "caliken" innovation? I love the way it "harmonizes" all the diagonal elements in the script.

 

Thanks much for posting. This is just one more reason the Penmanship forum is such a delight!

 

Doug

Edited January 25, 2009 by HDoug

[caliken]

I would love to have a complete sample of the alphabet, both minuscule and majuscule, as a guide.

 

Fernan & katim

 

here is a complete font as requested.

Edited January 25, 2009 by caliken

[caliken]

Ken, your example looks very much like my Grandfather's normal writing. He would have learned this in school in Southampton in the 1890s. Was this style popular in southern England in late Victorian times?

 

Peter,

 

I think that it may well have spilled over to England during the 1890s at the very start of the Art Nouveau period in France.

[caliken]

Might be just the thing I've been looking for, although I wouldn't be able to match such broad lines w/xf or f nibs I use.

 

Bruce & Fernan

 

Can I suggest that you look for a DeLuxe Manuscript Fountain pen set? It comes with six italic nibs of varying widths and is really inexpensive.

Practicing an existing alphabet or developing a new one, is always much easier with a broad nib as inconsistencies are more obvious at a larger size.

Edited January 25, 2009 by caliken

[caliken]

Actually, when I saw caliken's example (or perhaps exemplar is a better word).......

Caliken, is that diagonal combination ligature crossbar a "caliken" innovation? I love the way it "harmonizes" all the diagonal elements in the script.

Doug,

 

As you can see from the above font, none of this alphabet is original on my part - I can't claim the credit!

 

 

Edited January 25, 2009 by caliken

[Fernan]

I would love to have a complete sample of the alphabet, both minuscule and majuscule, as a guide.

 

Fernan & katim

 

here is a complete font as requested.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Fernan

[katim]

Caliken,

 

Thank you! It's interesting to see the hooked features in the majuscules (eg EFG) are not consistently applied throughout the alphabet. I imagine there must be an aesthetic reason rather than a rule here, but I've sometimes wondered why scripts have developed the way that they have. There's probably a treatise on this somewhere - perhaps I'd better start looking! :-)

 

Ken

[Ravenshurst]

LOVE those 'T's!!! I just bought my first "real" FP recently, but for decades I have been using an old speedball calligraphic pen for my every day writing...those mins look much like my normal hand, but those 'T's....My name contains cojoined "t"s and has always looked horrible when I write it. Thanks for the example.

 

Well, I am off to practice my new "T's now...

 

Write on...

 

Gonzo

[hardyb]

Some other takes:

[Pensee]

Might be just the thing I've been looking for, although I wouldn't be able to match such broad lines w/xf or f nibs I use.

 

Bruce & Fernan

 

Can I suggest that you look for a DeLuxe Manuscript Fountain pen set? It comes with six italic nibs of varying widths and is really inexpensive.

Practicing an existing alphabet or developing a new one, is always much easier with a broad nib as inconsistencies are more obvious at a larger size.

 

Thanks for the tip. It's an ambitious project and you hit the nail on the head. Consistency. Right now have only a few letters of my own for style sheet-- the rest are just a variation of letters found in Mary Champion's book.

 

(That book has really helped me discover shoulder muscles in rotator cuff I didn't know I had!)

 

Discovering all this takes discipline.

 

Some other takes:

 

Thanks for posting that. Some of the letters have given me ideas already

 

--Bruce

[henrico]

Hello Caliken...........in your example I see for the first time that your p's are "closed" which is the method I have used since my school days. I also write my b's "closed".

 

I find linking letters much easier with closed p's and b's.

 

So, my question is , why do we see mostly opened p's and b's in most cursive handwriting?

 

Henrico

[Randal6393]

This is a small sample of the lettering style known as French Script. It's not difficult to write and it's certainly a bit different and legible....but I'm not sure if I like it. I've posted it here for comments and opinions, please. It was written with a Rotring Artpen with an italic nib.

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/FrenchScript5.jpg

 

On the whole, I enjoy the script and like it. Even though the letters almost seem ready to "fall to the left" to me. Beautiful but a little would go a long way. Fernan uses the same hand but his letters seem to look more to the right, matching Italic and other cursive scripts.

 

Ran across a book by a German writing master of the 16th century, Johann Fuchs, that implied that a hand was good if it was consistent, whether it leaned left, right, or was vertical. But showed lack of discipline if the letters were not consistent. I think I agree with him.

[calliej]

I also like this script

and am a fan on the closed p's - easier on the eye

 

I also 'see' the falling to the left but think it adds a little charm, though as you say may be a bit much on a full sheet or many sheets giving an 'optical illusion' effect that tires the eyes.

[caliken]

So, my question is , why do we see mostly opened p's and b's in most cursive handwriting?

An interesting question - to which I have no answer! Perhaps someone else knows why(?)

[katim]

So, my question is , why do we see mostly opened p's and b's in most cursive handwriting?

An interesting question - to which I have no answer! Perhaps someone else knows why(?)

 

I've always assumed that it was because it increases the speed of the link between the p or b and its following letter - if you 'close' these letters, you then have to reverse over the closing stroke to get to the next letter. It's like joining on from, say, the letter 'n' (in the case of a p).

 

That said, I really much prefer the closed versions! Hang the speed! :-)