Culture Question:

China has calligraphy.
Do Western countries also have calligraphy?

(posted: Sep 2009)

Yes, Western countries do have calligraphy. While Chinese calligraphy is pictographic, Western calligraphy is alphabetic.

 Calligraphy and definition

There are many styles of calligraphy. Here are just a few:

Calligraphy examples      (2)

Many of the fonts you find in word processing programs were originally based on different calligraphic styles.

 

Sources (The top two calligraphy illustrations on this page came from the first website below):

  1. Bennett, Jim. “Calligraphy. For Everyone!” (http://www.studioarts.net/calligraphy/), 17-Sep-2009

  2. ‘Styles of Calligraphy’ examples from: http://www.compassionatexpression.com/images/Hand%20Calligraphy%20styles.gif

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Calligraphy

“The illustration above is a very quick sketch of how the most popular calligraphic styles are related to one another stylistically and chronologically.” (1)

 

Further Reading:

Online Calligraphy Lessons – Free. With animated pens!