The Calligraphy Tool

Large Icon for Calligraphy Tool Ctrl + F6 or C

What a goose quill was in antiquity, is Inkscape’s calligraphy tool in the digital world. Ideally, it should be used with a graphics tablet and stylus, with one hand on the graphics tablet and the other one on the keyboard, which moves the canvas, so one can write without interruption.

Calligraphy tool options

A varied set of options exists for simulating different brushes, in case the default brushes that come with Inkscape do not suffice.

Dip Pen

Emulates a bevelled pen tip.

Marker

Emulates a round and regular tip.

Brush

Emulates a soft, thinning ellipse.

Wiggly

Emulates a very jumpy round brush.

Splotchy

Emulates a quill.

Tracing

This allows you to emulate an engraving, by drawing more or less regular lines over a drawing that serves as a model.

Dip Pen setting of Calligraphy Tool

The ends of a line drawn with the Dip Pen setting are cusped.

Marker setting of Calligraphy Tool

With the Marker setting, the paths look smooth and their ends are rounded.

Brush setting of Calligraphy Tool

The setting Brush creates slightly rounded and uneven strokes.

Wiggly setting of Calligraphy Tool

The Wiggly setting allows you to draw very organic shapes.

Splotchy setting of Calligraphy Tool

When set to Splotchy, the result looks a bit like calligraphy.

Tracing setting of Calligraphy Tool

With the calligraphy tool setting Tracing, drawings that look like an old engraving can be created. The image below serves as a model.

The button to the right, Add or edit calligraphic profile, allows you to save and load the settings made in the following options, under a brush name of your choice.

Every brush is a result of the following parameters:

Width

Here you can set the width of your brush.

Pressure sensitivity icon Pressure sensitivity

This option is only useful when a graphics tablet is used for drawing.

Trace lightness icon Trace lightness

Needs to be active when you want to use the Engraving feature.

Thinning

Determines the width of the brush stroke at the start and end of the line.

Angle

Determines the quill’s angle.

Fixation

Determines how much the angle will change when the draw direction changes.

Caps

Determines the shape of the brush stroke’s ends.

Tremor

Adds a little randomness to the brush stroke.

Wiggle

Adds the unexpected.

Mass

Simulates the weight of the tool used, which has an impact on the stroke’s shape.

Like the Pencil tool and the Pen tool, the Calligraphy tool can create dots. Simply click in place without moving the mouse to create a small dot or hold Shift and click to create a large dot.