The art of making beautiful and elegant handwriting is called Calligraphy which requires skilled penmanship. Calligraphy is an art dating back to the earliest days of history. The literal meaning of the word calligraphy is beautiful writing.

Books have been written in calligraphy up until the invention of printing machines. Using quill and ink the handwriting has been written onto materials like parchment or vellum. There are three main styles of calligraphy which prevail today: Arabic, Chinese, known as Oriental style, and Western or Roman are the most popular modern calligraphy styles.

Today's calligraphy has little to do with the artistic discipline of each character. It is very often just simply good penmanship that attracts attention and has a distinct style of its own. This type of calligraphy is referred to as "modern calligraphy" or "New York Calligraphy", created by the New Yorker calligrapher Anne Robin.

On the subject of Indian calligraphy, Anderson 2008 wrote:

" Asoka's edicts (c. 265-238 BC) were committed to stone. These inscriptions are stiff and angular in form. Following the Asoka style of Indic writing, two new calligraphic types appear: Kharosti and Brahmi. Kharosti was used in the northwestern regions of India from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century of the Christian Era, and it was used in Central Asia until the 8th century.

Copper was a favoured material for Indic inscriptions. In the north of India, birch bark was used as a writing surface as early as the 2nd century AD. Many Indic manuscripts were written on palm leaves, even after the Indian languages were put on paper in the 13th century. Both sides of the leaves were used for writing. Long rectangular strips were gathered on top of one another, holes were drilled through all the leaves, and the book was held together by strings. Books of this manufacture were common in Southeast Asia. The palm leaf was an excellent surface for pen writing, making possible the delicate lettering used in many of the scripts of southern Asia."