Kufic vs Seal Engraving
クーフィー体 / 篆刻
Both sit in Calligraphic Traditions, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. One is style and the other technique. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Kufic
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Keeps the uprights short and draws the horizontals long, massing letters of straight strokes and right angles into a band of even height.
Seal Engraving
East Asia's seal art: seal script carved in stone, composed in a few square centimeters through the reversal of red and white (zhuwen and baiwen). Participating in paintings as signature, it perfected design inside the small square.
| Kufic | Seal Engraving | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 8th century onward | Qin dynasty– |
| Family | Calligraphic Traditions | Calligraphic Traditions |
| Kind | Style | Technique |
| Cues | Horizontals drawn long / Short angular uprights / Letters turning at right angles / Lines massed into an even band | Red-white reversal / Seal-script line design / Composition in centimeters / The texture of carved stone |
| Best used for | Cutting an inscription into a wall or a vessel as a band · Using the angular letterforms as figure, for titling and marks meant to be read from a distance | Small square seals stamped on works and letters to name their maker · Marks and signatures where a name is treated as pure form |
| Type | Fix the ratio of upright to horizontal first, and turn every corner at a right angle | Seal-script strokes stretched per character to fill the field |
| Composition | Align the top and the foot of the line, space the uprights evenly, and run the letters as a band | The small square divided evenly, space dealt out by stroke density |
| Material | Cut into stone, brick and tile, and on parchment hold the stroke to an even weight with the reed pen | Cinnabar red on white paper, chipped stone and blade tremor kept |
| Caution | Copying only the right angles while breaking the joins between letters leaves an ornamental band that no longer reads as a word. | Squeezing an existing typeface into a square without designing how the strokes breathe produces a cramped block instead of a seal. |