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Monthly Archives: March 2018
Edward Johnston by Priscilla Johnston
The biography of Edward Johnston was beautifully written by his daughter Priscilla. In the foreword Sir Sidney Cockerell writes: ‘To the unsympathetic observer Johnston could appear an exasperating eccentric but his daughter has shown the lovable quality
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Regular and running construction
There are two important categories in the construction method of a script: regular and running.
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Stroke-shape patterns
Western scripts are usually made up of stroke-shape patterns just like the Chinese scripts. Chinese kids start handwriting lessons by learning the basic stroke-shapes of a regular script.
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The stroke-shape
Handwritten letters are made of strokes. Strokes are shapes. Master Johnston coined the word ‘stroke-shape’ to emphasize the idea.
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Zapf on Zapf
About alphabets is a handsome little volume set in Optima and designed by Hermann Zapf (1918-2015) himself. The book presents some of Zapf’s type designs with some explanatory texts and other often funny anecdotes about their production. Zapf also tells … Continue reading
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文房四寶 The four treasures of the study
The ‘four treasures of the study’ (文房四寶, pronounced wén fáng sì bǎo) is a Chinese expression used to refer to the brush, ink-stick, ink-stone and paper. The study is the study room of the scholar. The Chinese ink-stick is made … Continue reading
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New beginning
水墨：尹佳 I’ve been thinking about reviving this blog. Everyday handwriting has practically disappeared. The teaching of handwriting is neglected without the slightest concern. In my opinion, it is still a desirable skill to be acquired and practiced. In my posts … Continue reading
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The shape of letters 字形 