Arabic Calligraphy vs Ebru
アラビア書道 / エブル
Arabic Calligraphy comes from Calligraphic Traditions and Ebru from Decorated Paper. One is style and the other technique. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Arabic Calligraphy
.jpg)
A tradition that holds writing to be the highest of the arts. From Kufic to Thuluth it has gone on refining an architecture of line, in the tension between canon and individual hand.
Ebru
.jpg)
Turkish marbling: pigments floated on thickened water, drawn into flowers and swirls with comb and stylus, lifted onto paper. Grown from calligraphy's ground into an art of its own, inscribed by UNESCO.
| Arabic Calligraphy | Ebru | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 7th century– | 15th century– |
| Family | Calligraphic Traditions | Decorated Paper |
| Kind | Style | Technique |
| Cues | Architectural letterforms / Canonical scripts / Breathing thick-and-thin / Composition united with ornament | Flower forms on water (ebru çiçekleri) / Combed wave patterns / The chance of each single sheet / Pairing with calligraphy |
| Best used for | Arabic titling and logotypes that must respect the canonical scripts · Architectural and craft ornament where the writing is the structure | Endpapers and bindings where every sheet must differ from the last · Using chance pattern as the ground beneath calligraphy |
| Type | Choose one script and follow its proportions for joining and stacking | Write the letters afterwards, into space the pattern left open |
| Composition | Work right to left, shape the mass through overlap and empty ground | Scatter a few flowers only and fill the rest with combed waves |
| Material | Thick and thin from the reed angle, gold and blue kept to ornament | Pigment dropped on thickened water, drawn with comb and stylus, lifted once |
| Caution | Setting Arabic letter by letter as if it were Latin breaks the joins, and the word stops being readable long before it stops being beautiful. | Scanning the pattern and tiling it removes the chance of the single sheet, which is what makes it work, and leaves printed wallpaper. |