Enhance your learning & practice by checking out the resources in our library!
The Colleagues has an extensive library inventory. Many items are newly published, some are rare and out of print. All are well researched acquisitions purchased by the Colleagues with the hope of serving our members well.
When we meet in person a selection of books are made available for a one-month check-out. Find basic rules for borrowing here. You can request items for a future meeting by using the online catalog.
If you are in possession of a book from our library, please bring it to our next in-person meeting or contact us to arrange its return.
If you have recently borrowed any books from the library, consider sharing a review.
We continue to explore shipping books and volunteers have offered to be part of a CoC Bookmobile to arrange drop-offs and pick-ups of books while some of our meetings are virtual.
For any questions about the library please contact: librarian@colleaguesofcalligraphy.com.
This Month’s Featured Titles:
So new, these titles haven’t been catalogued yet, but you can still borrow them.
Designing Fonts: An Introduction to Professional Type Design by Chris Campe and Ulrike Rausch with easy-to-follow instructions, many examples and professional tips, the book teaches you how to design unique typefaces tailor-made for your own projects or customer orders.
Designing Fonts has two parts. Part 1 explains the theoretical, creative and technical basics of type design and font production. Six chapters then cover everything from alphabet to font, showing you how to find and develop typeface ideas, design matching letters, produce fonts and expand them with special functions. Part 2 comprises eight workshops that explore how to design and implement different kinds of typefaces, from decorative interlocking display fonts with alternative letters to well-developed headline fonts with multiple cuts and OpenType features.
Bone Script & Neuland
by Carol DuBosch
This comprehensive new book from Carol DuBosch breaks down and de-mystifies two beautiful and unique hands: Bone Script and Neuland. Add these hands to your calligraphic repertoire using multiple exemplar alphabets, letter construction hints, and examples of each hand in use. This book has two covers; flip it over to switch between the hands.
Qian Zi Wen, the Thousand Character Classicb y Hong Zhang
Qian Zi Wenwas originally written between 507 and 521 CE by Zhou Xing-Si in the Lain Dynasty. For hundreds of years,it has been used to teach reading to Chinese children.
Qian Zi Wenis composed of 1000 characters; not a single character is repeated. The text is broken into 250 lines of four characters each. Every two lines form one unit, in most cases, every four lines form a stanza with a regulated rhyming scheme. This system of characters, organized into a coherent and rhythmic form, makes learning and reading Chinese easier and more interesting.
Zhang’s objectives in writing this book were to give his students a supplemental tool for advancing their Li Shu calligraphic skill, to provide all who desire to improve their Chinese language skills an opportunity to learn more about Chinese philosophy and culture. From the calligraphy stand point, this book focuses on practice models that strengthen stroke power and correct brush technique. Although it uses in total only one thousand characters, Qian Zi Wen covers a broad range of topics; it praises the beauty of nature, eloquently describing various elements of the sky, ocean and earth, and touches on many important Chinese virtues and philosophies, such as filial piety to parents, loyalty to country and ruler, care and love of relatives, respect to teachers, faithfulness to friends, and many more. Delight in 1000 Characters: The Classic Manual of East Asian Calligraphy by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Susan O’Leary.
The Thousand Character Essay is a masterpiece of Chinese calligraphy that has served as the art form’s classic manual for and standard guide for brush writing, both in formal and cursive scripts, over 1,400 years. This is the first translation of Zhou Xingsi’s writing that pairs it with the 6thcentury Buddhist monk Zhiyong’s calligraphy. It has been described as a historical and "rare combination of large-scale literature and supreme visual art.”