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The skill of making beautiful and stylish handwriting is called Calligraphy which requires skilled penmanship.
The literal concept of the term calligraphy is beautiful writing. Books were designed in calligraphy up until the invention of printing machines. Using quill and ink the handwriting was written onto materials like parchment or vellum. There are three main styles of calligraphy which are prevailing now. Arabic, Chinese - referred to as oriental style and Western or Roman are most widely used modern calligraphy styles. The range of calligraphy includes simple hand lettering to art work pieces where the expression of the handwritten mark may take precedence within the legibility of the letters. Typography shouldn't be wrongly identified as calligraphy.
Wedding and event invitations, maps along with other works involving writing, use modern calligraphy. Today's calligraphy has little to do with the artistic discipline of each character. It's just good penmanship that draws attention and has a distinct style of its very own. This type of calligraphy is called �modern calligraphy� or �New York Calligraphy �, created by the New York calligrapher Anne Robin. Find more info at [1]
Latin calligraphy or even the writing system together with Greek and Cyrillic writing product is referred to as Western Calligraphy. Early alphabets had evolved by about 3000 BC. Long, heavy rolls of papyrus were substituted with the Romans with the first books, initially by simple folded pages of parchment made from animal skins. At first reed pens were used for calligraphy that was subsequently substituted with quill pens.
Prolific copying from the Bible, specially the New Testament and other sacred texts gave a boost towards the development of Calligraphy. Monks in Ireland and Scotland used Uncial letters in their calligraphy also is known as Insular Style of Calligraphy. Illuminated manuscript was considered the zenith of western calligraphy in Northern Europe during 7th to 9th Century. Alcuin, the Abbot of York undertook a major revision of all styles of script and all sorts of texts to spread the skill of beautiful writing. Also, he created a new style called �Carolingian Minuscule" style named after his patron in Charlemagne.
12th Century saw the development of Blackletter also referred to as Gothic script. After the invention of printing by Gutenberg within the 15th century, hand-written and hand-decorated books dwindle common. Utilizing a sharp pointed nib rather than the flat nib a new style called copperplate was invented in 15th Century. It resembles the etchings of engraved copper and so the name copperplate.