Tutorial | Kaligrafija

Zgodovina in slogi

Po definiciji je kaligrafija "pisanje z lepimi, čitljivimi črkami" oziroma "lepopisje". V splošnem pa lahko rečemo, da je kaligrafija veščina lepega in elegantnega pisanja. To se morda sliši zahtevno, vendar lahko prav vsak z nekaj vaje zaobvlada osnove te umetnosti.

Up until roughly 1440 AD, before the printing press was around, calligraphy was the way books and other publications were made. A scribe had to handwrite every individual copy of every book or publication. Perhaps the most common place where the average person will run across calligraphy today is in the realm of motivating handlettering wall art, though.

Obstajajo trije glavni stili kaligrafije:

• Western or Roman: The preserved texts are mainly written with a quill and ink onto materials such as parchment or vellum.

• Arabic, including other languages in Arabic script, executed with a reed pen and ink on paper. (This style has produced by far the largest bulk of preserved texts before 1440.)

• Chinese or Oriental, executed with a brush.

The three styles have influenced each other on different occasions. Western lettering styles used throughout the ages include Rustic, Carolingian, Blackletter, etc.

Today, one great advantage that we have over the scribes of the past is the Undo command: If you make a mistake, the entire page is not ruined. Inkscape's Calligraphy tool also enables some techniques which would not be possible with a traditional pen-and-ink.

Strojna oprema

You will get the best results if you use a tablet and pen. Thanks to the flexibility of our tool, even those with only a mouse can do some fairly intricate calligraphy, though there will be some difficulty producing fast sweeping strokes.

Inkscape še ne uporablja občutljivosti na pritisk in občutljivosti na nagib, ki jo omogočajo nekatere grafične tablice. Funkcije občutljivosti so privzeto izklopljene, saj zahtevajo umerjanje. Upoštevajte tudi, da je tradicionalno kaligrafsko pero (v nasprotju s čopičem) skoraj neobčutljivo na pritisk.

If you have a tablet and would like to utilize the sensitivity features, you will need to configure your device. This configuration will only need to be performed once and the settings are saved. To enable this support you must have the tablet plugged in prior to starting Inkscape and then proceed to open the Input Devices... dialog through the Edit menu. With this dialog open you can choose the preferred device and settings for your tablet pen. Lastly, after choosing those settings, switch to the Calligraphy tool and toggle the toolbar buttons for pressure and tilt. From now on, Inkscape will remember those settings on startup.

Inkscapovo kaligrafsko pero je lahko občutljivo na hitrost poteze (glejte Tanjšanje spodaj), zaradi česar boste ob uporabi miške ta parameter verjetno želeli zmanjšati na ničelno vrednost.

Kaligrafsko orodje - opcije

Switch to the Calligraphy tool by pressing Ctrl+F6, pressing the C key, or by clicking on its toolbar button. On the top toolbar, you will notice there are 8 options: Width, Thinning, Mass, Angle, Fixation, Caps, Tremor and Wiggle. There are also two buttons to toggle tablet Pressure and Tilt sensitivity on and off (for drawing tablets), as well as a dropdown menu with a few presets to select from, and the option to save your own presets.

Širina in tanjšanje

This pair of options control the width of your pen. The width can vary from 1 to 100 and (by default) is measured in units relative to the size of your editing window, but independent of zoom (symbolized as %). This makes sense, because the natural “unit of measure” in calligraphy is the range of your hand's movement, and it is therefore convenient to have the width of your pen nib in constant ratio to the size of your “drawing board” and not in some real units which would make it depend on zoom. This behavior is optional though, so it can be changed for those who would prefer absolute units regardless of zoom. To switch the unit, simply use the unit selector after the Unit field.

Ker se širino peresa pogosto spreminja, jo lahko spremenite brez uporabe orodne vrstice in sicer z uporabo desne in leve smerne tipke. Najboljše pri teh tipkah je, da delujejo med samim risanje, kar pomeni, da lahko širino peresa spreminjate postopno, med vlečenjem poteze:

Širina peresa pa je, glede na parameter tanjšanja, lahko odvisna tudi od hitrosti. Ta parameter lahko zavzame vrednosti od -1 do 1, pri čemer vrednost 0 pomeni, da je širina neodvisna od hitrosti, pozitivne vrednosti naredijo hitrejše poteze ožje, negativne vrednosti pa naredijo hitrejše poteze širše. Privzeta vrednost 10 pomeni tanjšanje hitrih potez. Tu je nekaj primerov, pri vseh je širina = 0,2 in kot = 90 stopinj:

For fun, set Width and Thinning both to 100 (maximum) and draw with jerky movements to get strangely naturalistic, neuron-like shapes:

Kot in stalnost

Za širino peresa je drugi najpomembnejši kaligrafski parameter kot, ki predstavlja kot peresa in zavzema vrednosti od 0 (vodoraven) do 90 (navpičen v obratni smeri urinega kazalca) ali do -90 (navpičen v smeri urinega kazalca):

Each traditional calligraphy style has its own prevalent pen angle. For example, the Uncial hand uses the angle of 25 degrees. More complex hands and more experienced calligraphers will often vary the angle while drawing, and Inkscape makes this possible by pressing up and down arrow keys or with a tablet that supports the tilt sensitivity feature. For beginning calligraphy lessons, however, keeping the angle constant will work best. Here are examples of strokes drawn at different angles (fixation = 100):

Kot lahko vidite, je poteza najtanjša, ko je risana vzporedno s svojim kotom, in najdebelejša, ko je risana pravokotno nanj. Za desničarje so pozitivni koti najbolj naravni in zato tudi najbolj običajni.

The level of contrast between the thinnest and the thickest is controlled by the fixation parameter. The value of 100 means that the angle is always constant, as set in the Angle field. Decreasing fixation lets the pen turn a little against the direction of the stroke. With fixation=0, pen rotates freely to be always perpendicular to the stroke, and Angle has no effect anymore:

Tipografsko gledano sta največja stalnost in največji kontrast širine poteze (zgoraj levo) značilnosti antičnih tipografij s serifi (npr. Times ali Bodoni, ki sta že historično imitaciji kaligrafije s peresom). Stalnost = 0 in ničelni kontrast širine (zgoraj desno) pa je značilnost modernih tipografij brez serifov (npr. Helvetica).

Tresenje

Tremor is intended to give a more natural look to the calligraphy strokes. Tremor is adjustable in the Controls bar with values ranging from 0 to 100. It will affect your strokes producing anything from slight unevenness to wild blotches and splotches. This significantly expands the creative range of the tool.

Wiggle & Mass

Zadnja dva parametra, za razliko od kota in širine, definirata kako orodje "čuti" in ne vplivata na njegov vizualni učinek. V tem delu ni nikakršnih ilustracij; namesto tega maso in upor raje raziščite sami!

Wiggle is the resistance of the paper to the movement of the pen. The default is at minimum (0), and increasing this parameter makes paper “slippery”: if the mass is big, the pen tends to run away on sharp turns; if the mass is zero, high wiggle makes the pen to wiggle wildly.

In physics, mass is what causes inertia; the higher the mass of the Inkscape calligraphy tool, the more it lags behind your mouse pointer and the more it smoothes out sharp turns and quick jerks in your stroke. By default this value is quite small (2) so that the tool is fast and responsive, but you can increase mass to get slower and smoother pen.

Kaligrafski primeri

Zdaj, ko poznate osnovne zmožnosti orodja, lahko s kaligrafijo poizkusite sami. Če ste v tem novi, si priskrbite dobro kaligrafsko knjigo ter jo predelajte z Inkscapom. Ta del vam bo pokazal nekaj enostavnih primerov.

Na začetku je za pisanje črk potrebno ustvariti nekaj ravnil, po katerih se boste ravnali. Če boste pisali v poševni pisavi, potrebujete tudi nekaj poševnih smernic, npr.:

Nato povečajte platno, da bo višina med ravniloma ustrezala vašemu najbolj naravnemu obsegu premika roke, prilagodite širino ter kot in… Ustvarjajte!

Probably the first thing you would do as a beginner calligrapher is practice the basic elements of letters — vertical and horizontal stems, round strokes, slanted stems. Here are some letter elements for the Uncial hand:

Nekaj uporabnih nasvetov:

• If your hand is comfortable on the tablet, don't move it. Instead, scroll the canvas (Ctrl+arrow keys) with your left hand after finishing each letter.

• If your last stroke is bad, just undo it (Ctrl+Z). However, if its shape is good but the position or size are slightly off, it's better to switch to Selector temporarily (Space) and nudge/scale/rotate it as needed (using mouse or keys), then press Space again to return to Calligraphy tool.

• Ko napišete besedo, ponovno preklopite v orodje Izberi in prilagodite enotnost in razmak med znaki. Vendar pa nikar ne pretiravajte. Dobra kaligrafija mora do neke mere ohraniti videz ročne pisave. Uprite se skušnjavi kopiranja črk in črkovnih elementov; vsaka poteza naj bo originalna!

Nekaj zaključenih črkovnih primerov:

Zaključek

Kaligrafija ni le zabava, temveč globoko duhovna veščina, ki lahko spremeni vaš pogled na vse, kar delate in vidite. Inkscapovo kaligrafsko orodje služi le kot skromno uvajanje v vse to. In čeprav se je z njim lepo igrati, je lahko uporabno tudi v resničnem oblikovanju. Uživajte!