Italic Letters

Book excerpt: The most comprehensive guide to italic calligraphy! Italic Letters: Calligraphy & Handwriting by Inga Dubay and Barbara Getty is the most comprehensive "how-to" workbook that exists on learning italic: 128 pages of step-by-step, beautifully illustrated instruction. The teaching method is "hands-on": you learn to write beautifully by writing. The book provides page after page of models to trace and letters to copy. Each letter is presented in both a monoline tool, for informal and rapid writing, and an edged tool, for an elegant, formal hand. Dubay and Getty take you through basic italic, formal italic, chancery italic then cursive italic, four classic hands that will earn you a lifetime of compliments in both your formal calligraphy and everyday handwriting. Once you have mastered the letterforms, the authors show you how to use your calligraphic skills to design and produce posters, invitations, letters, cards, booklets, and envelopes. This resilient book is for serious calligraphers and those who simply want better penmanship. Italic Letters is for professional and amateur calligraphers, art teachers, and enthusiasts of the book arts. It's also for students, business people, homemakers; virtually anyone who wants to learn calligraphy and improve handwriting legibility. In this age of computer-generated letters and forms, people admire more than ever the beauty and personal impact of handwritten communication.