Calligraphy is basically an art of making beautiful and attractive hand writing with the help of special pen and stationary items. The skill requires special penmanship and it can be only executed by the ones who are creative and have a grave interest in such skills. The literal sense for calligraphy describes it as “beautiful handwriting”. Various books have also been written for describing calligraphy art in complete detail. Apart from writing over a plain sheet of paper, the art of calligraphy involves exhibiting creativity on different materials likes sheep’s skin, vellum and parchment. The three major styles of calligraphy are as follows:
-Oriental style
-Chinese style
-Arabic style
Chinese style of calligraphy is also known as modern form of calligraphy. It is the simplest and the most preferred calligraphy styles. The Chinese style of calligraphy includes certain handwritten lettering into fine art pieces. It must be noted that Professional Calligraphy and topography are two distinct forms of art. They must not be confused with each other.
Wedding invitations along with some modern art pieces tend to include a modern form of calligraphy only. Currently, calligraphy has quite a little to do with artistic discipline of individual characters. It is basically creative penmanship which lures the attention of the viewer with its peculiar style. The Latin form of writing is known as Cyrillic or Greek form of calligraphic writing. It is said that prolific copying of certain pious books lead to the invention of calligraphic art. Monks in Scotland and Ireland used yet another form of writing that came to be known as the insular style of writing.
As for the techniques, the western calligraphy has some unique features. You might have noticed the illumination of the first letter of each book or chapter in ancient period. When comparing with the Chinese and Arabic calligraphy, the western calligraphic text has staunch rules and shapes. The writing followed a unique type of rhythm and regularity, and the style showed the geometrical order of lines on the page. Each letter has a smooth stroke order and the calligrapher cannot change that style. It is mainly the irregularity in letters, size, style and colors that make calligraphy look so beautiful. At times, it may not appear completely decipherable to you, but will be certainly meaningful to a viewer who has an eye on such works of art.
Nowadays, one shall see that this form of art is used across the globe for several purposes. Calligraphy is not only used in invitation cards that are meant for wedding ceremonies, but is also used to describe various commercial commodities. Words that are written in calligraphy have a different appearance altogether. Such words appear all the more neat and clean thereby making the packaging of a product look simple and sober.
People who practice calligraphy is known to have mastered the art of fine writing. Earlier, calligraphy was specifically used to write upon major documents, laws and contracts. But with the invention of printing machines, calligraphy is used in almost everything that requires being described in some or the other way.