Customer Reviews
going against the grain on this one 
2008-03-07
I enjoyed reading this book and peruse it on occasion, but I cannot follow it. It is beautiful, yet not practical enough. I believe it is not well organized, that it visually all sort of runs together, and that it should have been spiral bound. It's worth it to pay a few dollars more for spiral bound, yet the majority of how-to books are NOT offered as such. With a book you are doing copywork from, it's a pain trying to weigh it down to stay open without damaging the spine. I will hold on to this, but am here now to shop for a more useful book.
Art in hand writting 
2007-09-19
Margaret Shepherd has written many books about this subject (Calligarphy), this is special because include a sort of recomendations for students.
I really enjoyed this book.
Good buy 2007-06-06
This book is excellent. When I received my book, I started to practice for 1 week and now my handwritting is pretty.
Great Author, great books 2007-04-14
I was really having a hard time picking out calligraphy how to books so i went to the book store. unfortunately they do not have a lot to choose from, at the second store i found a better selection and found Margaret Sheperd's books. Wow, great books and great way to learn, she has a funny side to her and this book is incredible, not only do you learn you have fun doing it. i also saw a few more books in her name. Unfortunately i didn't have very much time to look at them all and i cant wait to go back to see the rest. I am thinking of picking up all her books.
I think this is the best of the starter books. Very easy and a fun read too!
Cheryl
Response with gratitude 2005-05-25
I am the author of this book and just want to respond that I agree with the very critical reviewer who felt strongly that Copperplate should have been included. I wish so too. But it would need a whole other set of supplies and hand positions. Copperplate comes along much later, and is really outside the main core of the broad-pen historic hands. Maybe some day!
To respond to Gary Bisaqa's review, I agree and I have covered the business end of calligraphy as a free-lance job, in a whole other book, Calligraphy Projects for Pleasure and Profit.
I wrote this, like all my other books, because I wish I'd had such a book when I started out. Thank you to others who wrote in to say that it helped them start out too.
Excellent book for learning 2003-06-09
In an age of myriad computer fonts and instant communication, your handwriting style is increasingly a very personal creation. In this book, Margaret Shepherd, America's premier calligrapher, shows you that calligraphy is not simply a craft you can learn, but an elegant art form that you can make your own.
Calligraphy remains perennially popular, often adorning wedding invitations, diplomas, and commercial signs. Whether it is Roman, Gothic, Celtic, Bookhand, or Italic style, calligraphy conveys class and elegance. Margaret Shepherd makes this ancient art form accessible in a completely hand-lettered technical guide that will:
* Provide context for calligraphy as an art, exploring the rich tradition of hand-lettering and mapping the evolution of the most popular styles.
* Give detailed technical advice on choosing pens, paper, and inks, setting up your workspace, mastering various pen angles, along with step-by-step illustrations to guide you as you practice.
* Explain which alphabets are appropriate for different forms of writing. For example, the Roman alphabet works well for short, unpunctuated passages, while the Italic alphabet is more suited to informal everyday communication.
* Encourage you to personalize your lettering by using variant strokes and interpreting how you would like the words to look on the page.
* Inspire you with carefully chosen illustrations and examples, which bring letters to life.
In Margaret Shepherd's own words, "Calligraphy trains not only your eye and hand, but your mind as well."
Learn Calligraphy is the authoritative primer for this age-old craft, and will help develop a new appreciation for lettering as you discover your creative personality.
A good starting point 
2002-05-20
After many years, I restarted calligraphy again with this book. It is straight forward and easy to use. If you are thinking of learning calligraphy on your own, this is one of the books to have. It gives you practical guidance, not just alphabets.
Not good 
2002-01-29
This isn't a good book. There are much better ones on the market. To have a book printed in calligraphic hand seems to be
interesting, but it actually turns out to be methodologically not so. Much better is to have the book in normal print and the
examples in calligraphic hand. There is no contrast to help the
learner see differences. Moreover, this author may be a good
doer but to put the message across is quite a different thing:
her explanations aren't that clear.
One more point: this author needs to be urgently introduced to
copperplate hand. She does not mention it at all. As an author teaching beginning calligraphy it's
your moral obligation to show the hands. After all, copperplate
isn't one example of a hand; it1s a hand in itself.
A classic... 2001-11-28
This is the book I use as a text for beginning calligraphy students at the local community college. All the text is handlettered and there are many examples of how to use calligraphy in everyday life. I've used Margaret Shepherd's books since the '70's, and this is the best one she's done for beginning to intermediate students. It is both instructive and inspiring.
Very Good Book 2001-09-10
I simply LOVE this book: it's fun and easy and improves your lettering and calligraphy in an easy way. I practice calligraphy since 10 years, but still I found in this book some "shortcut" to make my works more accurate.
Great space for practicing, lots of alphabets shown, a nice way to introduce arguments ... a must have book for all calligraphers.
