What Calligraphy Tips Weekly Actually Is
It's a weekly email newsletter that sends out one focused calligraphy technique, one project idea, and one common mistake to avoid. Nothing flashy. Just short articles, usually 400 to 800 words, with hand-written examples and photo comparisons. The person behind it goes by the name "Calli" and has been sending these since early 2018. The archive is freely available on the website, but most people subscribe because they want the new edition every Tuesday morning without digging through old posts. I know that sounds harsh, but it's the real problem. The archive has over 400 editions. If you just start reading from issue one, you will hit the same basics three separate times before you reach the useful advanced stuff. The early weeks cover grip, slant, and basic downstrokes — all correct, all standard — but there's no point re-reading those if you already know them. What most people should do is search the archive for their specific problem. Got shaky letterforms? Search for "shaky stroke." Having trouble with flourishes? There's an entire series on flourishing that runs about fifteen editions back-to-back. The search works if the site loads decently. I use the browser's find function on the archive page instead of clicking through weekly, which cuts my research time from maybe twenty minutes down to about two.
One thing the newsletter does well that you won't find elsewhere is the side-by-side comparison photos. They'll show a wrong example next to a right one, both written on the same paper with the same pen. That consistency matters more than people realize. When the variables are controlled, you can actually see what changed. I remember trying to figure out why my O's looked lopsided for weeks. Found the exact issue in issue 87 — it wasn't my angle, it was the pressure shift during the return stroke. The photo made it obvious. Took me about forty-five minutes of reading to fix something I'd been struggling with for three months.
How to Actually Use It Without Getting Overwhelmed
Subscribe, but don't treat every issue as mandatory reading. Some editions are longer projects that take several hours. Others are quick fifteen-minute fixes. The subject line usually indicates length — if it mentions "project" or "practice sheet," expect to spend real time. If it's just a tip, you can read it while your ink dries. The practice sheets they include are genuinely useful. They're formatted as printable PDFs with clear guidelines for each letterform. I've printed maybe sixty of them over the years. The paper quality matters though — standard copy paper absorbs ink differently than the heavier stock the originals were written on. If your pens skip or bleed, switch to something like Rhodia or even just a slightly heavier printer paper. It changes how the strokes behave enough to make the difference between learning the motion correctly and reinforcing the wrong one. Here's the edge case nobody warns you about: the newsletter occasionally references tools or materials that have been discontinued or gone out of stock. A few years back, they featured a specific nib set from a brand that stopped making it. The link in the article was broken. I ended up spending an hour trying different alternatives before realizing the only viable substitute was buying a similar nib from a completely different manufacturer at nearly double the price. Now I always cross-reference any tool recommendation against current availability before ordering anything. The workaround is just to note the nib or pen model, search for it by name rather than by link, and check a few retailers before committing.
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What You Won't Find There (And Why It Matters)
Calligraphy Tips Weekly focuses heavily on Western traditions — Copperplate, Italic, Spencerian. If you're working in Arabic calligraphy, Devanagari, or any non-Latin system, this isn't your resource. There are maybe two or three issues per year that touch on other scripts, and they're surface-level at best. Don't expect deep coverage of anything outside the European tradition. The advanced content also has a ceiling. Once you get past the intermediate mark, the newsletter starts repeating concepts with slightly different applications rather than introducing genuinely new material. The flourish series is the best of the advanced content, but even that plateaus around edition 200. After that, you're better off looking at dedicated books or taking a class with someone who can give you real-time feedback on your form. Another limitation: the newsletter doesn't address digital calligraphy tools at all. No iPad, no Procreate brushes, no vector work. If that's your thing, you'll need to supplement with other resources. The advice still applies — grip, pressure, rhythm — but the execution tools are completely different and the newsletter ignores that world entirely.
The signup is free and the unsubscribe process is straightforward, which is more than I can say about half the writing newsletters out there. I've been subscribed for about seven years and only cancel when I need a break from email in general. The content itself has stayed consistent, which is rare. Many calligraphy resources start strong and then devolve into promotional fluff or sponsored content after a year or two. This one hasn't. That's worth something. If you're serious about building a practice routine, the newsletter works best when you pair it with actual daily writing. Reading about stroke order doesn't teach your hand the motion. I spend about twenty minutes a day practicing whatever the current week covers, and the progress compounds faster than I expected. The key is consistency over intensity. Twenty minutes every day beats three hours once a week, and the newsletter is structured to support that pace without feeling overwhelming.
