Drawing artwork for fonts

[William]

Some readers will be aware that in the Microsoft Paint program that there is a Brush tool and that within that brush tool, third row, first column, is a brush that allows one to draw as if one had a wide, thin pen held at an angle of 45 degrees.

Thus, if, using that tool, one draws a letter O, then at about 7-8 o'clock and 1-2 o'clock as one looks at the picture, there is a wide line and that at about 10-11 o'clock and 4-5 o'clock there is a thin line, as if a calligrapher had drawn the letter with a pen, whilst keeping the pen at the same angle relative to the paper.

Yet Paint, good though it is, only has a few brushes.

Does anyone know please of a drawing package where that same calligraphy effect of thicks and thins as one draws an O can be achieved, yet where there is a wider choice of brushes and perhaps the opportunity to design custom brushes? For example, I would like a brush like the one described above yet wider and thicker and not necessarily at a 45 degree angle to the horizontal.

William Overington

28 April 2009

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Try Serif DrawPlus X2.

Inkscape is free, but not quite so easy to use.

[William]

Try Serif DrawPlus X2.

Thank you for your reply.

I have DrawPlus 8, the version in which the Paintbrush Tool was introduced, but I have not been able to get it to do an O with thicks and thins as I described.

Maybe I have not yet learned to do it or maybe DrawPlus 8 will not do it.

Do you know if DrawPlus 8 can do it please? If it can, could you possibly point me to the way to do it please?

I realize that you know that DrawPlus 8 is the version immediately before DrawPlus X2, yet I mention that for the benefit of those readers of this thread who are not aware that situation.

William Overington

28 April 2009

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I don't have DrawPlus 8. In DrawPlus X2 or X3, any line can use a calligraphic line style. This is a quick ellipse. I would be surprised if this was not available in earlier versions of DrawPlus. You select the weight and angle of the calligraphic brush in the Line Tab.

Calligraphic Line.png (19.36 KiB) Viewed 5542 times

[William]

Thank you for your reply.

I have found that it works in DrawPlus 8.

I had been looking in the wrong place. I had been looking at the brushes for use with the Paintbrush Tool rather than looking at the options for the Line Tool and the Pen Tool.

William Overington

29 April 2009