In your opinion, what is the most aesthetically pleasing writing system (calligraphy included)

[brainchild]

I've always enjoyed looking at the different visual designs of writing systems around the world, and now I'm kinda curious as to which writing system you believe is the most beautiful.

For me, it has to be Arabic Calligraphy

I mean, just look at that! Those curves and lines are mesmerizingly simple! I'd love to get physical hand-written letters in the mail just to look at the characters again.

So what are your picks, ERA?!

 

[Deleted member 20284]

I'd have to go with Japanese calligraphy, especially when using a brush. The written form is precise and beautiful but when the art is painted it's another aesthetically pleasing element altogether.

 

[IDreamOfHime]

Comic sans

 

[i_am_ben]

Georgian

 

[benru]

I'd have to go with Japanese calligraphy, especially when using a brush. The written form is precise and beautiful but when the art is painted it's another aesthetically pleasing element altogether.

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I think you mean Chinese calligraphy.

 

[Jakenbakin]

Courier New. I'm not a font-ist so forgive me if this is a faux pas to the community but I legitimately love that shit.

 

[Chittagong]

I remember when I did a bespoke corporate typeface for a big brand in a ton of different scripts. We did Naskh for Arabic as it worked best and Saudis and UAEs seemed to like it. Persians were like 'we can't read that shit'. They needed Kufi, so we had to do two Arabic typefaces. Might have been the other way around.

I think the most aesthetic scripts are Hebrew and Katakana, both can be very beautifully geometric.

 

[Gundam]

I don't know that I have a favorite writing "system", but I'll never not love the RuneScape font.

Just super nostalgic, and a really pleasing hard-pixel font with loads more A E S T H E T I C packed in than most "retro game" fonts.

I think you mean Chinese calligraphy.

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My 1000x folded steel calligraphy can cut through pretty much everything.

 

[Shoot]

I second Arabic. It is incredibly versatile.

 

[Timbuktu]

Traditional Chinese calligraphy. Probably regular or semi-cursive script.

 

[Mediking]

Comic Sans is a king

 

[finfinfin]

Korean and Arabic have some of the nicest-looking scripts, as someone who can read neither.

I have a perverse fondness for that one weird German style. Sütterlin? Apparently learning to read that shit is suffering for historians who have to read sources written in it. You just seem to zigzag the pen for a bit when you get bored of your current word.

 

[NekoFever]

As impressive as Chinese or Arabic calligraphy are, I love a nice serif font designed for long-form text like novels. Something like Palatino, or Amazon's Bookerly, that's designed to be read for hours on end. Even on websites, it automatically puts me into reading mode and feels all cosy.

 

[ishan]

Georgian

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more or less this I read an article about it cant remember where but that written language looks sooooo nice.

 

[bagandscalpel]

It's half background bias and half aesthetic taste, but I'd have to vouch for Chinese calligraphy, especially the more blocky styles.

 

[Alethiometer]

Comic Sans

 

[Puroresu_kid]

Arabic. Looks amazing!!!

 

[Sander VF]

Don't know about most beautiful, but it shouldn't be in poor taste to plug mine (Georgian):

 

[boris_]

Korean alphabet.

Not just aesthetically.
Incredibly easy to learn and very sensical.

 

[ghostandgoblin]

Don't know about most beautiful, but it shouldn't be in poor taste plug mine (Georgian):

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That's beautiful, looks a bit like Tolkien's elven writings.

 

[Gernau Morat Gurgeh]

I'm with you OP. Nothing beats Arabic script - it's incredibly versatile and I'm always amazed by its decorative uses in architecture.

 

[Deleted member 26398]

Shekasteh nastealigh is my favorite calligraphy.

 

[ZiZ]

Add one more to the Arabic calligraphy.

 

[nib95]

Arabic and Japanese for sure.

 

[Skade]

Comic Sans

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Came for this.

 

[Lunaray]

Arabic calligraphy is beautiful. I also want to say Ge'ez is a beautiful abugida and everything written in it is so pretty.

 

[Fraktur]

I always had a soft spot for mongolian script:

More here

 

[LogicAirForce]

I've always thought Japanese looked really beautiful, and I don't just mean the Chinese characters but Hiragana and Katakana as well.

 

[Spectone]

Thai is my favorite.

 

[meowdi gras]

Trchnakir, the Armenian "bird calligraphy":

 

[boris_feinbrand]

I always liked the karolingian minuscule. It isn't overly playful, but written by a master it creates an amazing body of text that is both very easy to read and pleasing to look at.

When I had to translate various latin manuscripts for a class, I started to learn to write the letters in the corresponding style. That helped increasing my reading speed immensely. And it produced a few cool looking scraps of paper for my textbooks.

 

[hobblygobbly]

Sütterlinschrift. More info : http://www.suetterlinschrift.de/Englisch/Sutterlin.htm

You can still see it in Germany on buildings

Some of my family's documents (like marriage/death records) from this time are in this script.

 

[boris_feinbrand]

Sütterlinschrift. More info : http://www.suetterlinschrift.de/Englisch/Sutterlin.htm

You can still see it in Germany on buildings

Some of my family's documents (like marriage/death records) from this time are in this script.

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I transcribed a few WW1 and WW2 Feldpost letters, and at one point could read this fluently... man I'm out of practice. And yeah, some of the letters were pieces of work. You could tell the care and love that was put into every single letter. Magnificent.

 

[Abu]

It's definitely Arabic.

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Beautiful language.

 

[Morrigan]

Sütterlinschrift. More info : http://www.suetterlinschrift.de/Englisch/Sutterlin.htm

You can still see it in Germany on buildings

Some of my family's documents (like marriage/death records) from this time are in this script.

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That looks so harsh and primitive compared to the lovely Arabic calligraphy haha. No offense meant, I understand it has meaning for you.

 

[brainchild]

Wonderful choices by everyone. Keep 'em coming!

 

[Deleted member 20284]

I think you mean Chinese calligraphy.

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I can't read or write either but when I was in Japan we sat in on some writing and art sessions explaining the strokes, order etc. Just incredible.

If my Google image was Chinese instead then my bad. My mandarin is poor at best.

 

[Pixel Grotto]

I can't read or write either but when I was in Japan we sat in on some writing and art sessions explaining the strokes, order etc. Just incredible.

If my Google image was Chinese instead then my bad. My mandarin is poor at best.

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It's both - Japanese, Korean and pretty much every East Asian language were influenced by Chinese characters at one point. The kanji used in Japanese calligraphy are basically just Chinese characters.

The character in the image you posted looks a little odd to me though - the three strokes on the lower right side seem to be backwards. Should be 修 (pronounced xiu in Chinese, shu in Jaopanese)

Going back to the topic at hand, I find both Chinese and Korean calligraphy to be especially beautiful.

 

[hobblygobbly]

That looks so harsh and primitive compared to the lovely Arabic calligraphy haha. No offense meant, I understand it has meaning for you.

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It's ok no offence taken, I like a lot of the German scripts (if you think this looks bad you should see some of the older cursive types :P). Both my grandparents could (and the ones still living) write in such a way. The Nazis ended up banning a lot of these scripts though, initially they promoted some of the blackletter scripts, but once they discovered that some German Jews at some point had been involved in creation of some of them over time... yeah.

I transcribed a few WW1 and WW2 Feldpost letters, and at one point could read this fluently... man I'm out of practice. And yeah, some of the letters were pieces of work. You could tell the care and love that was put into every single letter. Magnificent.

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Yeah the various scripts in German actually make it difficult to read a lot of history that was recorded in German, both German history and of other parts of Europe, even though German language has changed very little compared to many other European languages - most German speakers should be able to understand written German throughout the centuries but the scripts make that very difficult. My grandparents went through school at the time this was introduced, so they could write it.

 

[shnurgleton]

It's Arabic for sure

I love Korean because it looks cool and is easy to read

 

[riverfr0zen]

Wow, great thread. That Armenian bird calligraphy is something I hadn't seen before.

 

[Deleted member 1067]

I've always thought cyrillic looked really cool

 

[Lynd]

Some really nice examples here. Lovely.

I'm going to throw out my love of Tolkien's Elvish. I know it's fictional, but I do like how it looks.

 

[Mikebison]

Messages scrawled on walls in human faeces.

 

[Deleted member 2595]

Another vote for Arabic.

More beatiful than any other I've seen

Don't know about most beautiful, but it shouldn't be in poor taste to plug mine (Georgian):

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That is awesome

It's definitely Arabic.

Beautiful language.

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Holy shit that horse one

 

[flatearthpandas]

Not to weeb out, but the writing is my favorite thing about Japanese. A single sentence will usually have at least two alphabets and up to four is normal. Just a nice diversity to it that I enjoy seeing. Also, two different directions it can be read

 

[boris_feinbrand]

That looks so harsh and primitive compared to the lovely Arabic calligraphy haha. No offense meant, I understand it has meaning for you.

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Having learned to write this, it is far from primitive. Calligraphy isn't just about who can make the most intricate signs. There is a serene beauty in well structured and well written text. It is strict and almost monolithic. Different design philosophy.
And completely different application. Sütterlinschrift was introduced for everyone to read and write. From a farmhand to academics.
To call it primitive displays ignorance on your part.

 

[Dyle]

I like late English manuscripts, because they developed a complex mixture of Greek, Roman, and Uncial characters, beautiful initials, and various colors and sizes for notes. It's a wild mess compared to some of the beautiful order of Arabic and Chinese writing systems, but that's what makes it interesting to me. The Eadwine Psalter is one of the best examples of this gorgeous disaster

 

[Gargantua]

Beautiful thread, I always had a soft spot for Japanese but Arabic is truly a beauty

 

[boris_feinbrand]

I like late English manuscripts, because they developed a complex mixture of Greek, Roman, and Uncial characters, beautiful initials, and various colors and sizes for notes. It's a wild mess compared to some of the beautiful order of Arabic and Chinese writing systems, but that's what makes it interesting to me. The Eadwine Psalter is one of the best examples of this gorgeous disaster

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What I love about this example is that you can see it's a Palimpsest. They scraped off the original text on this parchment and wrote this over it. Parchment was extremely expensive and so pagan texts, greek philosophy and science treaties were erased to make space for codices etc.
If I'm not mistaken the underlying script is in greek?