opening page of bound book written in calligraphy

Your Own Book in Calligraphy ~

Imagine having your own book filled with your writing in a gorgeous one of a kind custom book! I was delighted with a request to write an entire book in calligraphy! This was to be a very special gift to the love of her life. In fact, they co-wrote the book together. Never having written out an entire book, I had to learn a lot!

Designing a Custom Bound Book Written in Calligraphy

Designing and spacing for a book is different than writing on a flat surface. The layout of the calligraphy text is very important because you need to have borders that are even from page to page. It is necessary to have good margins so you can read the text when the book is open. Even remembering which side of the paper will be bound is important- is it left or right?!  There are a lot of words in a book, and  a lot of pages in a book. So you want to have the right number of pages without blanks- that is, unless you are having a journal designed. 

Luckily, my client was open to suggestions from both the book binder and me, the calligrapher! I was thrilled to work with a talented woman, Tedra Ashley-Wannemuehler who has created many fabulous designs that are custom made for you.

The Cost for a Custom Designed Book written with Calligraphy

The expense of writing out an entire book in calligraphy is significant. When you see examples of these custom designed bound books you will understand why.  Isn't it gorgeous? 

A Book is a Heirloom

Is there something that you want to save for your family to become an heirloom? Imagine saving your grandmother's,  mother's and your recipes to hand down to future generations. Do you write poetry or short stories? Do you have special inspirational quotes that you love? Those could be written in calligraphy and put in a custom book. Yes, it can be expensive, but can you really put a price on something so special? 

custom design bound book


 As a calligrapher who does custom calligraphy, I have many requests to write very long texts; poems, biblical verses, and Best Man Speeches which can have MANY words. The way I determine the price for calligraphy is to consider the number of words, the number of lines, whether I will have to spend time working in photoshop on backgrounds and personal photographs. If someone wants the words to be very large that can also take extra time.

Computer Font with Hand Written Calligraphy lowers the cost

When your text is very long, and your budget is short, I have a wonderful alternative! I can use photoshop to pick an amazing computer font, and then write titles and specific important lines in hand calligraphy. Then I can bring the price down to half of what it would generally cost for a calligrapher to write out the entire text! There are beautiful new fonts available. When combined with the calligraphy headings, it really looks like a custom calligraphy artwork!

That was the perfect option for my client. She picked a computer font and I wrote titles, page numbers, leading letters and more in calligraphy. That way she got a custom personalized hand made book written in calligraphy and computer font at a price that worked for her.

I needed 2 things from a calligrapher: professional guidance on a project, and artistic, meticulous delivery of the product. Lianda exceeded my expectations on both. She is an experienced professional, and an artist. I feel so fortunate to have found her, and would not hesitate to use her again. –

Cynthia H.

Technology: Combining Your Photo With Custom Calligraphy

I have not found another custom calligraphy site on the web where a calligrapher combines hand written calligraphy and superimposes it on photography and a client’s choice of background. Most of the calligraphers I have seen do hand painting or border designs on their calligraphy artwork. It can be very beautiful. (But I have seen some really awful examples as well!). And because of the time it takes to do both, it is generally very expensive- and worth it when you find a really talented calligrapher.

Happily, I have an option for people who want their own photograph or selfie with their text written in calligraphy. Another calligrapher would have to tell their client to have the photo and calligraphy combined with a matt cutting out two spaces for each part in a traditional frame. But with Photoshop, I can combine both together! And it costs a LOT less money!