Digital Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy: Essential Techniques Plus Step-by-Step Tutorials for Scanning, Editing, and Creating on a Tablet

by Shelly Kim

Lettering enthusiasts of all levels will love learning easy ways to develop and adapt hand lettering skills and techniques to a variety of digital platforms in Digital Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy.

Popular Instagram lettering artist and workshop instructor Shelly Kim (@lettersbyshells) offers lettering enthusiasts at all levels step-by-step instruction, along with ample photos and lettering examples. Start with lettering essentials that show how to create different styles of brush lettering with the right tools, how to connect letters to form words, form flourishes, and more.

Then turn that unique calligraphy into lettering that you can use over and over again, just by digitizing it. Discover several options for creating digital lettering, each one clearly outlined and explained. Become familiar with tools and techniques that make the process fast and enjoyable.
See how far you can take your digital lettering with fun projects for creating cards, name tags, adding foiling and more.

In this book you’ll learn how to:

• Produce loose, bouncy lettering that adds style to any project
• Design meaningful quotes by learning a quick trick for great compositions
• Create digital files that give you numerous options for adding color and changing the shapes and sizes of letters
• Make a custom digital lettering brush that you can use for unique calligraphy
• Letter on a tablet and learn the basics of Procreate and Apple Pencil
• Use your lettering for great projects that incorporate digital and hands-on techniques
• Get inspiration from stunning gallery pieces by Karin Newport of @ipadlettering and Myriam of @halfapx

 Digital Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy will guide you to the future of lettering!
 

• ISBN13: 9781631597206
• Publish Date: 27 August 2019
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 5 May 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Quarry Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 144
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Digital Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy is a tutorial guide for both beginning hand calligraphers as well as readers looking to expand their options with digitizing their hand-lettered paper projects and manipulating them with graphics software.

Due out 27th August from Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 144 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This was an interesting niche book for both calligraphy and digital image manipulation. The author presupposes no previous experience with calligraphy and spends a fair bit of page content showing the tools and supplies needed for practice and progress.

The book is split into four main sections. The first 25% of the book contains illustrated hand lettering practice pages and alphabet tutorials. There are both script and non-script alphabets illustrated as well as a very short tutorial on negative space, flourishes, and placement.

The next 3 sections cover digitizing on different platforms and for different uses. The tutorials include specific screen by screen instructions for scanning, cleaning up, and manipulating the images. About 20% of the page content (section 4) contains step-by-step tutorials for projects including using foil letter on a laminating machine, digital silhouette cameo machine with vinyl letters, printed card-stock name tags, and 5 others. All of the included tutorials result in -gorgeous- and professional looking finished projects. They had me itching to drag out my laminating machine and (literally) sent me online comparison shopping for a silhouette cameo machine!

This is an inspirational and well made book. This would be perfect for papercrafters, scrapbookers, fabric crafters (with heat transfer), and so many other media (decoupage, furniture refinishing, pyrography, glass painting, jewelry).

The book also includes an inspiration gallery (and it is inspirational), along with a links section, slanted toward readers in North America, a short author artist's statement/bio, and an index.

Really an interesting concept. There are masses of books on calligraphy, and no dearth of books on digitizing. Combining both into a specific focus in one volume was wonderful.

Five stars. I'm impressed.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.