Spencerian Cursive Copybook Set Plus Theory

My preferred hand-writing style is more like a classical 'Copper-plate', but this is also a really beautiful script, which is definitely worth the (small) effort required to learn it. Some of the letters are too 'American-colonial' for my taste [lower-case 'r' and some of the capitals.] I went to elementary school in the US, but finished my basic education in a more 'British' (former) colony and preferred the local script, to what I'd been taught. I never had any real interest in penmanship or calligraphy, until I was exposed to different hand-writing styles. Both of my parents, who were educated in Europe, had very beautiful cursive scripts. My father's was very close to the Spencerian style (and. also, at that 'magical' 51° slope), but had been adapted for multi-lingual use. However, everything my mother wrote looked like a work of art. It was a pleasure to watch her sign my report cards for school, or to write an 'airmail' to her relatives, abroad. Her individual letters were created mostly with unconnected side-and-down-strokes, with clockwise round-strokes and it was magical to watch! (Almost like Chinese and Japanese calligraphy.) This text-book, as old-fashioned as it is, plus the multiple practice pages, will help anyone who thinks that their hand-writing needs a 'kick in the pants' to improve [...almost everyone, in this Age of Keyboards?] will benefit greatly from this series. This purchase was supremely good value to me and I would highly recommend it for anyone who's into beautiful writing.

A while back I saw a Kickstarter campaign for a fountain pen, and in the video, the guy had the coolest handwriting. The campaign ended up being a bust, but it got me interested in fountain pens, so I bought, rather impulsively, a Lamy Safari italic, and 2 Visconti pens. After buying the pens, I realized that my handwriting, while decent, wasn't anything that would impress anyone. I stumbled on iampeth.com which is a great resource for learning all about different scripts and their histories. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff on the site is ridiculously complicated and not anything that could really be used day to day, including the ultra-embellished Spencerian script. So, I started looking on Amazon to see if I could find any Spencerian guides. I came upon this and bought it. The set comes with 5 books and a theory book. The theory book is hilarious. It advocates things like getting out a protractor and ruler to measure the exact distance and angle you're sitting with respect to your paper. Okay, ya no... not doing that. But in any case, it's an amusing historical insight into a bygone era. The books themselves are of pretty high quality. They feel like something out of their era but in a very nice way. Each book starts with basics, building upon the last book, and gradually if you use this, you're handwriting will improve. I wouldn't say that I was dedicated enough to come out with absurdly beautiful handwriting, but my handwriting has definitely improved and doing it on my own terms as opposed to having some rude elementary school teacher beat into me was satisfying. I'd definitely recommend a finer tipped tipped pen and ink that won't bleed. The paper is good, but it's not thick enough to prevent bleeding with wet inks, and the lines are small, so writing with a fat tip is going to make mastering some of the flourishes difficult. All in all, if you're interested in having cooler looking handwriting to go along with your expensive fountain pens or even just generally, these books are a good investment.

These are wonderful for those who are interested in improving their penmanship in a traditional way. PR Spencer is the father of American cursive, long predating the modern cursive that you see today. First developed in 1870s, there is no wonder that the instructions, language and style is a little old-fashioned but hey, that's what we want, right? If you want your kids to learn cursive handwriting, these copybooks may just be a little too boring, tedious and old fashioned for them. But for us adults who appreciate beautiful 19th century writing, look no further. Traditionally, Spencerian penmanship is done using a quill pen. Yep, the turkey feather stuff. That's why in the later books there are some shadings on the letters.. all they have to do back then is press harder on the quill pen and the shading occurs. Unfortunately, one cannot achieve shading with a modern roller ball or gel pen. You would need a steel dip nib, a flexible fountain pen or a quill (if you're really dedicated) and inkpot to achieve this. Still, it's not necessary, you can get any fine pen to practice the whole set and ignore the shading. You can generally use any old pen to practice, although I recommend using the finest pen you can find.. a 0.4 or even 0.3mm pen. This is so you can really concentrate on the letter forms as you practice. Using a thick/broad pen to practice letterforms is like cooking with a cold.. you can't tell what you're doing wrong! This is NOT copperplate! Spencerian penmanship is NOT meant to 'test the limits of your flexible nibs.' Yes, there is some shading in this script but not much. These are very light shading just to accent the letters, some letters are shaded, and some not. Some are shaded more, some less. These little nuances and variety in the script is what makes is beautiful. In comparison, copperplate/engrossers utilize even shading for all letters and is not meant to be a handwriting style. It's important not to get these two scripts confused. Honestly, if you buy this book and fill up every page diligently, I don't see how you won't improve. Unless you've been writing with your eyes closed or something, if you put effort with this book, you WILL improve. It's like a side effect you can't shake off. Once you are done with the book, perhaps you will find an itch to practice with a dip nib to get those coveted shades.. then you'll find you need better ink and better paper.. next thing you know, you're up to your knees in copybooks and penmanship books and nibs. It's a slippery slope, my friends, to the world of beautiful penmanship.. and this is the first step!

This has transformed my handwriting in the few months i have had it. I am 34 soon to be 35 and very dyslexic i found my handwrighting very embarrising compaired to others. i felt like a child if anything needed to be put on paper. After looking online for anything to help and not getting anything of real value, i decided to try this as a last ditch attempt. i thought to myself its probably not gonna work like the last 6-7 books before it. Yet when the mini course arrived i was a little shocked as it had workbooks to practice in. id not had that with the other "theroy"books, they just suggested useing a plain pad or very expensive ornimenta lined paper. it was just more and more expence that i didnt have. it was just off putting and depressing. Well the day i started reading the theroy book it totaly changed evrything.it was easy to grasp and the work books are brilliant in layout, you just copy whats on the page. In a matter of days my wrighting was more controled less scribble and better then ledgable, i now have people saying how beautiful my handwrighting is, and im not even that good at it yet. Im finding im constantly improving more and more each day, i now love wrighting anything by had just to show off a little because its fun. If you are looking to improve your handwriteing as i was, i would say look no further. you dont have to be super ornimental with the letters for your day to day writing, but they are good fun to learn as an addition, especaly as its so easy to do with a little practice. all i can say now is this has been the best purchace i have made in years. If you want to just learn a new style or improve like i did the course is brilliant

Bellissimo, avrei preferito un formato leggermente più grande per maggior chiarezza

Easy to follow, so nice. 😌

practicar buena letra

I am very satisfied with my purchase. In addition to the fast shipping, the books are of good quality. The cover is in satin paper and the pages are like craft paper, which gives the books a vintage touch.