These are very nice. Have you seen Izzy Pludwinski's new book, Mastering Hebrew Calligraphy? It is very good.

No, John.

Who is Izzy Pludwinski?

Mr Pludwinski is a Hebrew calligrapher, originally from New York and now residing in Jerusalem. His new book is one of the best introductions to the script that I have seen. It includes, among other things, a nice chapter on analysing historical manuscript styles.

http://www.impwriter.com/

>> It includes, among other things, a nice chapter on analysing historical manuscript styles.

John,

Which chapter is that?

Most of those are too calligraphic, at least from my perspective; I think they hold back Hebrew typography. Arabic has the same problem (in fact probably worse).

hhp

Hrant, a deep knowledge of history and of scribal hands is no barrier to being innovative in type. I think it's an advantage, if taken with the right spirit. Fred Smeijers is an example of a designer who is both deep into history and innovative.

Bill,

Where can I see examples of Fred Smeijers' work?

hrant,

Arabic as a calligraphic or handwriting script is prone to this. For this reason, there are initial, medial, and final, forms to each letter.

If you look at Isamar David's fine book on Hebrew Letters, only a few of the typefaces presented contain "block" letters (each font is amazing), while the over-whelming majority of typefaces contain calligraphic forms. David was primarily a calligrapher first, and a master type designer second.

Sol Malkoff I believe worked with Lilly Wonker, who worked with Isamar David for years. Hence, we see David's influence upon Sol Malkoff.

Interestingly, we don't see this calligraphic influence by the works of Henri Friedlander, Eliyahu Koren, and Tzvi Narkis, the masters of modern Hebrew type design.

Smeijers work is here and here.

Bill,

I got this http://typophile.com/node/add/wiki?edit[title]=https: link for either one.

That's weird. I'm using the regular typophile formatting for links, but the site is adding a connection to the wiki. Anyway, go to Fontshop and search on his name, or to Ourtype.com.

Note to Admins: what gives here?

thanks.