Where I Go for Calligraphy & Lettering Inspiration
Whether stuck in a creative rut or just seeking a fresh perspective, I always turn to vintage lettering exemplars when I want some new ideas. In this post I’m sharing my five favorite—and free—places to go on the internet when I’m looking for calligraphy and hand lettering inspiration.
Archive.org
This is one of the internet’s greatest treasures for artists. The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library that compiles cultural artifacts in digital form. Just like a paper library, their resources are 100% free.
Among the vast collections of scanned documents, you can find hundreds of vintage typography books, sign painting manuals, penmanship guides, letterpress catalogues, and more. You can flip through the pages of each one and save them to your personal archive.
One of the best parts for me is that most archives don’t clean up or crop their scans, meaning you can see the yellowing pages as they have survived time—creased corners, ink stains, tears, and all.
Here’s my own collection of Internet Archive favorites:
Flickr Commons
Although Flickr began as a site for sharing personal photo albums, it has become a treasure trove of copyright-free (a.k.a. “creative commons”) images that users scan, upload, and share with the public. This subsection of the site is known as Flickr Commons, and you can search for just about any subject. Vintage typography is no exception.
Like an antique store, it can require some searching to find the gems, but when you do, the search is worth it! For instance, check out these search results for vintage typography images.
Public Domain Archive
The Public Domain Review is full of quirky, curious discoveries. This online journal curates works in the public domain, and writes articles to accompany the images. From their own mission statement:
“With a focus on the surprising, the strange, and the beautiful, we hope to provide an ever-growing cabinet of curiosities for the digital age, a kind of hyperlinked Wunderkammer – an archive of content which truly celebrates the breadth and diversity of our shared cultural commons and the minds that have made it.”
I can spend hours clicking from one article to the next, especially because so many of their posts highlight eccentric old typography. Have a look at their Design & Typography Archive.
Penna Volans
Penna Volans is the blog and archive of calligrapher Sybille van Zuylen. Her site fast become a favorite because Sybille has curated a top-notch archive of downloadable, historical calligraphy exemplars, and organized them based on era, style, and geography.
She has also gathered exemplars of individual letters from different historical samples, and sells them as downloadable packets for learning. Her catalogue of exemplar sheets is quite impressive!
Masgrimes Archive
Calligrapher David Grimes has created a fantastic collection of scanned, historical exemplar books, presented in their entirety and available as free, high-resolution downloads. They are—dare I say—absolutely engrossing!
All the booklets are in the public domain, but as David points out, it’s important that we “remain respectful of the time and energy spent to produce [the booklets] when utilizing [them] in derivative works.”
I hope these historical exemplars help you expand your typography horizons and stimulate new and exciting ideas. Let me know in the comments if these sites inspire you, too, and if any of them earn a spot in your bookmarks!
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This post contains some affiliate links, which support the free content I write on this blog, the free downloads I offer in my Lettering Toolkit, and the ongoing work of maintaining Calligrafile.com. I only recommend tools and resources I actually use and love, and my suggestions are never influenced by these affiliate associations.
