Copperplate Calligraphy Paper
Heavy waist and base lines, light ascender and descender lines, and a 55° slant grid under it all: the pointed-pen guide sheet.
Heavy waist and base lines, light ascender and descender lines, and a 55° slant grid under it all: the pointed-pen guide sheet.
Choose Copperplate Calligraphy Paper from the list. It opens with the usual size already set.
Pick the paper size, the grid and the orientation. Customize holds colours, margins and more.
Download the ready PDF, or print straight from the page at 100% scale.
Copperplate is written at a constant slant — traditionally 55° from the horizontal — and consistency of that angle matters more than almost anything else in the hand. A ruled slant grid under the writing line is the only reliable way to learn it: every downstroke has a line to follow, and the moment one drifts you can see it.
The proportions are set as a ratio of ascender to x-height to descender. Classic copperplate is 3:2:3, which makes the ascenders and descenders one and a half times the x-height. Spencerian runs closer to 2:1:2, and engrossers' scripts go as far as 5:4:5.
Start from the nib and the x-height you can actually write, then set the ratio.
Every sheet here is free, adjustable and prints at exact scale.
55° is the copperplate standard and 52° is usual for Spencerian. Modern calligraphy uses anything from 45° to upright — the number matters less than keeping to it.
Ascender : x-height : descender. At 3:2:3 with a 5 mm x-height, the ascenders and descenders are 7.5 mm, so a full row is 20 mm.
Yes — that is how most calligraphers work. Print it dark, slip it under a sheet of translucent practice paper, and the finished piece has no lines on it at all.
