Cursive GeneratorCopperplate is the formal pointed-pen script of the eighteenth century: a steep, shaded English round hand named for the engraved copper plates its exemplars were printed from.
Letterforms
The letters are built on a slant of roughly 55 degrees from the horizontal, with hairline upstrokes and thick downstrokes produced by pressing a flexible pointed nib. Ovals are round and full, loops are elegant rather than narrow, and the capitals are elaborate compound curves that are often flourished. Entry strokes are hairlines that begin at the baseline. The contrast between thick and thin is the defining feature; without it the letters read as an ordinary slanted cursive.
Joins and lifts
The lowercase is joined through its hairline upstrokes, and the shaded downstrokes are made one at a time, with the pressure released on each upstroke. Capitals stand alone. Because every letter is drawn rather than written, Copperplate is slow: it is a calligraphy hand for a few words, not a writing hand.
Where it comes from
English writing masters of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries developed the round hand for commerce, and engravers cut their exemplars into copper plates for printed copybooks, which spread the style across Europe and America. George Bickham's Universal Penman of 1741 is the best-known collection. The American Spencerian hand descends from it. Today Copperplate is the standard formal calligraphy script for wedding invitations, envelopes, certificates and signage.
Practising it
You need a pointed flexible nib in an oblique holder, thin ink and guide sheets with the slant marked; the worksheet generator prints ruled sheets for pointed-pen practice. Start with the basic strokes, then the lowercase in groups built on the oval, then capitals. The site renders the hand in a Copperplate-style font for reference; the English round hand page covers the writing hand it grew from, and the calligraphy fonts list the faces that imitate it.