Best Calligraphy books | Learn hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy

best calligraphy books

Calligraphy is the art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or brush. It is about forming numbers, symbols, and letters beautifully by hand and arranging them well so that the art may look more informative and appealing.

Handwritten Calligraphy has been used for a long time to create colorful words, logos, certificates, banners, monograms, religious art, announcements, graphic design, and memorial documents. From how to begin with Calligraphy to the ways of mastering it, these books have it all. Here you can find some of the best Calligraphy books to learn easily.

Lettering and Modern Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide: Learn Hand Lettering and Brush Lettering
Author: Paper Peony Press
Published at: 27/10/2017
ISBN: 1948209004

If you are an absolute beginner with or without any decent artistic talent then this comprehensive guide will suit you the most to learn Calligraphy. It contains a basic foundation with lots of visuals, built-in structure, and repetition of topics in order to get the feel of how letters are created.  

It is easy to follow and offers a great variety of fonts to practice. It breaks down the fonts into three rows and categorizes them into Upper hand, lower hand, brush scripts, etc. This Calligraphy book also comprised of plenty of practice sheets for practicing calligraphy. It includes 5 different alphabet styles. It also offers 15 amazing projects at the end to test your calligraphic skills.

This book will teach you the fundamental things to develop a strong foundation in Calligraphy. Hand lettering will be easier for you after reading this book. You can design various envelopes, cards, banners, hand styled logos with the help of this book. This book gives a great explanation at the beginning of methods, provides tips and tricks about the styles of letters.

There are also instructions inside the book on how to get additional practice worksheets. This book is recommended by a huge bunch of readers around the world. You will also find this book very useful for starting your journey to learn Calligraphy.

This book contains the following topics:

  • Getting started with Calligraphy (Tips, Tools & Techniques)
  • Lowercase and Uppercase Brush Scripts
  • Lowercase and Uppercase Hand Lettering
  • Lowercase and Uppercase Sans Serif, Serif
  • Practice Pages
  • Design Tips and Projects


Modern Calligraphy: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started in Script Calligraphy
Author: Molly Suber Thorpe
Published at: 24/09/2013
ISBN: 1250016320

Modern Calligraphy is one of the best books available in the market that will help you the most to learn Calligraphy. This is Molly Suber Thorpe's brilliant masterpiece. Her casual writing style will amaze you. This book is written in such a way that even a novice calligrapher can easily understand and follow through the chapters.

Simple step by step break down and a clear idea about the formation of letters, words, and phrases are the key points that makes this book a classic for learning Calligraphy. This Calligraphy book explains the spacing and formatting of letters and gives instructions on choosing pens, ink, and paper. It has plenty of instructions on different calligraphy supplies, types of nibs and nib holders and how they work.

It also offers great resources for creating designs for various occasions. From the very basic things like how to hold your pen for doing right Calligraphy to the most advanced modern-day Calligraphy, this book covers them all. This book has examples of each letter of the alphabet for both uppercase, lowercase, and numbers.

It has around 20 wonderful finished projects that we could use with lettering in our daily life to create stunning wedding invitations, thank you cards, gift tags, and more. You will surely fall in love with this amazing book.

What you will learn:

  • Essential toolkit to start Calligraphy
  • Step by step learning of Calligraphic Letters, Words and Sentences
  • Straight-line writing
  • Intermediate tools & techniques to use
  • Writing with watercolor and gouache
  • Designing examples
  • Wonderful projects
  • A resource guide and online templates


Calligraphy Paper, Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy Notepad: A Brush Lettering Practice Pad With 50 Removable Sheets and Pre Printed Guide in Two Styles
Author: June & Lucy
Published at: 05/01/2021
ISBN: 1646083024

Perfect your calligraphy and hand lettering with this high-quality Modern Calligraphy & Hand Lettering Practice Paper. The heavyweight, 140 gsm paper allows for smooth strokes and no bleed through. Additional hand lettering guidance is included in an easy-to-follow preprinted guide and samples modern calligraphy alphabet.

This notepad includes:

  • 50 pages of high quality 140 gsm paper to avoid bleed-through
  • Preprinted guides on each page
  • 25 dot matrix grids
  • 25 lined lettering grids
  • Modern Calligraphy alphabet included
  • 8.5 in. x 11 in.


Creative Calligraphy Made Easy: A Beginner's Guide to Crafting Stylish Cards, Event Decor and Gifts
Author: Lim, Karla
Published at: 08/12/2020
ISBN: 1645671348

Learn the art of calligraphy with this approachable, inspiring step-by-step guide. Calligraphy is the key to creating stunning, customized cards, gorgeous hand-addressed envelopes, personalized stationery, unique gift wrap and more. Renowned calligraphy designer and instructor Karla Lim breaks down the complex craft into simple steps so you can get amazing professional results in your cards and gifts, while also enjoying this meditative process. With worksheets right in the book, you can practice forming and connecting letters in a variety of sophisticated modern calligraphy styles. Karla’s practice plan makes it easy to get comfortable with the essential tools and techniques before moving on to create personalized projects with your new skill.



Pretty Simple Lettering: Modern Calligraphy & Hand Lettering for Beginners: A Step by Step Guide to Beautiful Hand Lettering & Brush Pen Calligraphy Design
Author: Whitney Farnsworth
Published at: 13/07/2019
ISBN: 1948209470

Learn the art of hand lettering with this comprehensive how-to book, full of beauty, knowledge, and inspiration! Pretty Simple Lettering is the perfect book for any hand letterer, whether you're new to the art or an experienced designer looking to expand your skill. In the book, you will learn the basics of creating alphabets in many different styles, how to develop those styles into one that is uniquely your own, and how to turn your lettering into beautiful pieces of art.



Super Simple Hand Lettering: 20 Traceable Alphabets, Easy Projects, Practice Sheets & More! (Design Originals) Includes Technique Guides, Skill-Building Exercises, Art Prints, & Vellum Tracing Paper
Author: Kiley Bennett
Published at: 12/02/2018
ISBN: 1497203716

Discover how to transform simple words into stunning works of art with this interactive workbook!

  • 20 traceable alphabets, both lowercase and uppercase, let you get started lettering right away
  • A beginner-friendly guide to tools and techniques is included, for an easy introduction to creative hand lettering for absolute beginners
  • 4 skill-building practice exercises help build your lettering skills
  • 5 easy-to-execute projects incorporate the hand lettering skills you've learned
  • 4 frameable pullout art prints to display, gift, or embellish
  • Quality vellum tracing paper to practice your lettering
  • Colour gallery of finished art to inspire your creativity


Calligraphy & Hand Lettering Notepad: Beginner Practice Workbook & Introduction to Lettering & Calligraphy (Practice Makes Perfect Series) (Volume 1)
Author: Gray & Gold Publishing
Published at: 28/12/2016
ISBN: 1945888741

Calligraphy & Hand Lettering Notepad is an amazing hands-on practice and styling pad for learning Calligraphy. The whole practice pad is divided into three sections. Angled Lines, Straight Lines, and Dot Matrix. The angled lines will help you to sharpen your lettering angles from side to side.

The dot matrix will help you to practice letters and perfect your strokes accordingly as given in this book. The straight lines section will make you better at angles and styling. This book has a great quality of paper inside which enables you to practice calligraphy styling on both sides without worrying about overlapping colors.

This book will be a perfect practice pad for anyone intended to learn calligraphy or brush lettering. It has over 100 lined pages for practicing and improving your hand lettering skills. Take your calligraphic skills to the next level by this awesome book.



Modern Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide to Pointed Pen and Brush Pen Lettering
Author: Leslie Tieu
Published at: 01/04/2017
ISBN: 0998906204

If you are new to Calligraphy and looking for a complete guide to learn it, then this book is all you need. Highly praised by a large number of readers, this book is a clear and consistent styling guide.

It includes countless pages of lettering examples and practice sheets and also provides valuable information about them. It briefly describes the 3 official ways of writing each letter in lowercase and uppercase. The author also introduces 10-20 additional styles for each letter without practice lines to test your calligraphy skills.

With these additional styles, you can develop your own style of writing Calligraphy. This book also covers the differences between cursive scripts, calligraphy and brush lettering. It discusses the technical terms and tools, basics for pen and brush calligraphy and the important drills & letterforms with an outstanding idea about shadowing and flourishing.

This book is definitely worth its price and most definitely recommend to anyone looking to start calligraphy. To make it even better, it’s printed on high-quality paper.

This book includes the following key topics:

  • Information on how to create your own style of lettering
  • 3 main ways and 10-20 additional ways of styling letters
  • Information on upstrokes, downstrokes, and common shapes
  • Bubbling, shadowing and flourishing letters
  • Online resources


Lettering & Calligraphy: Workbook to Learn Hand Lettering Brush Lettering and Mo (Lettering & Modern Calligraphy)
Author: Lily Kate
Published at: 23/03/2018
ISBN: 1948652048

This book is all about learning hand lettering, brush lettering and modern calligraphy in an easy way. It explains several types of lettering, includes traditional and modern calligraphic lessons.

It also has plenty of practice space. You will be able to create colorful lettering designs with a lot of examples to follow through. All the contents of this book are beautifully presented and informatively written. A lot of tips and tricks will make you more interested and comfortable in the world of calligraphy.

From brush strokes lettering to over 15 fun projects, this book is all you need to enrich your Calligraphic skills.

Main topics of this book:

  • Introductory discussion
  • Lettering guide
  • Connecting letters
  • Designing words
  • Innovative projects
  • Plenty of room for practice space



Calligraphy Workbook for Beginners
Author: Maureen Peters
Published at: 31/10/2017
ISBN: 0811719952

Calligraphy Workbook for Beginners is a beginner-friendly guide to learn modern Calligraphy. It features 5 popular fonts-Italic, Uncial, Foundational, Gothic and Casual Pointed Pen.

Each of the fonts has the details and step by step walk-through which will help a learner to focus more on his learning. The author has also supplied plenty of images for each style of letters, numbers, and punctuation. He also teaches the way of holding the pen and how the style of the characters is formed.

This book covers all the necessary information about paper, pen, and ink. Amazing attention to detail, suitable for all levels and beautiful projects have made this book a special one to consider when learning Calligraphy.



Calligraphy Practice Notebook: Upper and Lowercase Calligraphy Alphabet for Letter Practice, 8" x 10",20.32 x 25.4 cm, 124 pages, 60 practice pages, ... case, Soft Durable Matte Cover (Classic)
Author: Calligraphy Paper,calligraphy book practice
Published at: 20/02/2017
ISBN: 1543208738

Calligraphy Practice Notebook is a practice sheet for learning uppercase and lowercase calligraphy alphabet. It includes guidelines about how to practice the letter on this workbook and perfect your skills. It has 124 pages, 31 practice pages per Letter case for your proper practicing and learning.

The quality of the paper used in this book is excellent for calligraphy. The ink will smoothly flow on this workbook and you will not face any trouble while practicing. The durable matte cover on the front has made this book very appealing. It will be a great value for money for you.



Nib + Ink: A Modern Calligraphy Sketchbook
Author: Chiara Perano
Published at: 07/02/2017
ISBN: 1419724347

As the name suggests Nib & Ink is a sketchbook that is for practicing modern calligraphy. This book is written by targeting the beginners to get into pointed pen calligraphy. It has many practice pages, discusses the use of tools while also explaining the basic strokes and techniques like how to hold a pen into paper.

It also includes examples and beautifully written words and sentences to test your skills. Sketchbook's paper quality is excellent. You will face no trouble writing and practicing on it. 



Brush Lettering from A to Z: A Fun and Comprehensive Guide to Creating Modern Calligraphy with a Brush Pen
Author: Emma Witte
Published at: 01/06/2018
ISBN: 144132707X

Brush Lettering from A to Z is considered one of the best books on brush lettering guides. This book covers all the important information from basic to advance on brush lettering.

It starts with staple strokes the foundation of brush lettering and then it guides you to the way of forming letters, words and finished projects with a lot to exercise. It will also teach you about letter connections and good practice habits before moving on to advanced skills like flourishes, depth effects, watercolor, paintbrushes and more.

You can easily form your own new styles after finishing this book. This book would be a great resource for people wanting to learn brush lettering in a naturally amazing and fun way through Emma Witte’s guidance.

You will learn:

  • Brush lettering basics
  • Staple strokes drills
  • Minuscule and majuscule letter guide sheets
  • Forming words, numbers, and symbols
  • Advanced tips and tricks
  • Examples and exercises


Fun and Friendly Calligraphy for Kids: A Hands-On Guide to Creative Lettering
Author: Virginia Lucas Hart
Published at: 30/10/2017
ISBN: 1612437222

This book is everything a beginner calligrapher needs to know to get into the amazing world of calligraphy. This content-heavy clearly written book covers the descriptions of pretty basic things to the countless possibilities of calligraphy.

The author explains the tools and techniques needed to start, the step by step guidelines of forming letters and writing words and the common mistakes to be avoided when learning calligraphy. She also shows you the way of finding your own style of lettering. There is plenty of room for you to practice.

This book explains the ways of perfecting your skills in a detailed and fun way. This book is not only suitable for kids but also a wonderful learning guide for any age. It is easy, relevant and very well organized. Any person regardless of experience can pick this up and learn from it.

Contents discussed in this book:

  • Basic Calligraphy terms
  • Essential tools and techniques
  • Modern calligraphy
  • Learning letter-forms
  • Developing your own style
  • Practice guidelines
  • Thank you notes, monograms, signatures, logos, etc.


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