Calligraphy is the practice of writing with a deliberate and artful style, with a consistency across letterforms. Calligraphy’s literal meaning is “beautiful writing “. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner.

It involves the correct formation of characters, the ordering of the various parts, and the harmony of proportions. In the Islamic and Chinese cultures, calligraphy is as highly revered as painting. It is made of strokes, meaning you break each letter down into different parts. In calligraphy, there are thin upstrokes (when your pen is moving upward) and thick downstrokes (when your pen is moving downward).

The principal tools for a calligrapher are the pen and the brush. The pens used in calligraphy can have nibs that may be flat, round, or pointed.