Calligraphy terms

This short post will introduce some terms used in calligraphy.

Broad edged pen
The common calligraphy pen with a flat edge. Can be a dip pen, fountain pen, chisel point marker, reed pen, etc. In fact anything with a straight edge including cut popsicle sticks, pieces of carboard, etc. can be used to write. Roman, uncial and italic are written using broad edge pens.

Broad edge pens are classified by nib width and different angle cut into the nib, which include normal, left hand oblique and right hand oblique. A common misconception is that left-handed people should use left hand oblique nibs when in fact left and right denote only the direction of the slanting of the nib's edge with respect to the barrel of the pen. Richard Binder's site has excellent information on this subject (http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/nib_primer.htm).

Pen angle
The angle that the edge of the nib makes with the horizontal as shown as measured in a counter-clockwise direction. Pen angles differ from script to script. Some common ones are listed below:

• Uncial: less than 20 degrees
• Roman: 30 degrees
• Italic: 45 degrees
• Cursive: -70 degrees (more on that later)

(image source: www.calligraphylearn.com)

Majuscule
The formal name for capital letters.

Minuscule
The lower case letters. Legend has it that typesetters put the more frequently used small letters in the lower case and less used capitals in the upper case, hence the name.

x height
The height of the small letter x. Usually the x height is given as the number of nib widths.

Slant
Slant is the angle at which the letter itself makes with the vertical measured in a clockwise direction. Roman and uncial script is written without slant, i.e. verticals go straight up and down. Italics are done with a moderate 5-20 degree slant. Cursive is usually has a slant of more than 30 degrees.

Flex/ flex nibs
Perhaps the least well-defined aspects of nibs. Flexible nibs produce a broader line upon increasing pressure. A nib is flexy if the ratio of pressure vs line width is small. The scale used to describe the flexiness of a nib is "rigid", "semi-rigid", "semi-flex", "flex", "full flex" and "wet noodle". Some nibs are soft or springy, meaning that the nib deforms upon pressure but the line does not broaden too significantly. The best flex nibs are able to go from needlepoint (~0.2mm) to double broad (2mm). Flex nibs are hard to use and easy to break. Fountain pens used to be semi-flex but most modern ones are made to be rigid, soft at best.

Flex nibs are used to write cursive such as Copperplate and Spencerian.

Oblique holder
Nib holder used for holding flexible nibs to achieve the -70 pen angle. Some left-handed calligraphers may be able to write cursive without using this tool.