In learning ornamental penmanship, in particular Copperplate or Spencerian, practice on specially lined guidesheets is very useful. These guidesheets can be purchased, or there are places on the web where they are available to be printed out. Two sites that I know of offer customizable guidesheets generators where the various parameters (line heights, slant angle, etc) can be set by the user. The URLs of these two sites are:
http://shipbrook.net/guidelines/
http://www.allunderone.org/calligraphy2/calligraphy.php
I find the latter (page title Linugraphy) to be preferable, though your own preferences may be different. In any case, here is a description of the Linugraphy generator.
First, this generator is described as being for calligraphy and the various parameters are set units of the selected nib width. For pointed pen guidesheets, just consider that "nib width" means "unit of measure" and set it to 1.0 millimeters. All other parameters (ascender height, capital line height, x-height, and descender height as well as white space between sets of lines) are in multiples of nib width (unit of measure). The angle is measured from the vertical, so for Spencerian enter 38 degrees to get a 52 degree main slant as measured from the horizontal.
A button allows one to preview the set-up before generating the PDF file for printout. Don't forget to select portrait instead of landscape.
http://shipbrook.net/guidelines/
http://www.allunderone.org/calligraphy2/calligraphy.php
I find the latter (page title Linugraphy) to be preferable, though your own preferences may be different. In any case, here is a description of the Linugraphy generator.
First, this generator is described as being for calligraphy and the various parameters are set units of the selected nib width. For pointed pen guidesheets, just consider that "nib width" means "unit of measure" and set it to 1.0 millimeters. All other parameters (ascender height, capital line height, x-height, and descender height as well as white space between sets of lines) are in multiples of nib width (unit of measure). The angle is measured from the vertical, so for Spencerian enter 38 degrees to get a 52 degree main slant as measured from the horizontal.
A button allows one to preview the set-up before generating the PDF file for printout. Don't forget to select portrait instead of landscape.
