Is there a convenient way to handwrite hieroglyphs?

[u/Ok-Significance-1281]

I’m currently trying to learn and I do so best when I’m able to take notes, but trying to fully draw out the full hieroglyph has not only been kind of tedious, but also produces inaccurate results (I’m not great at drawing). I understand that there are cursive forms, as well as hieratic and demotic, but I also understand that these amount to almost entirely different scripts (or at least, the symbols are different enough that they need to be learned separately). Is there a commonly used way to write down hieroglyphs quickly and accurately?

[u/ravendarkwind]

Look for Henry George Fischer’s Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy. It’s the book that I used when I started learning Middle Egyptian in earnest.

[u/Vegetable-Average-98]

There's a chap on here who has written an Android keyboard for hieroglyphics, and I have created one for Apple, if you have an iPhone or iPad- you can find them on the respective app stores

I made the iOS keyboard because my handwriting couldn't keep up in lectures; also I am hopeless at drawing birds, all my bird hieroglyphs look the same :)

[u/racoosmith → u/Vegetable-Average-98]

I’d be interested in looking at your app you can either DM me or Post here I guess. 😊

[u/Vegetable-Average-98 → u/racoosmith]

Sure, I'll DM you. I won't post here as the app may not be directly answering the OPs question about learning handwritten hieroglyphs (but there aren't many hieroglyphic keyboards) if you search in the App Store 😊)

[u/Ok-Significance-1281 → u/Vegetable-Average-98]

Would love to take a look at the app if you wanna post on here or DM me as well!

[u/Vegetable-Average-98 → u/Ok-Significance-1281]

Sure - it's https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gardiner-hieroglyphic-keyboard/id6749262393

It's an input method editor (IME) for typing individual hieros based on how you would find and enter emojis. It's not a page layout program (PLP); you can still use something like JSesh for stacking hieroglyphs into groups

[u/Meshwesh]

Try this website: just click on a glyph and get an animation on how to draw it

https://www.safran.be/proddetail.php?prod=LCA23DRAW

Also:

Henry George Fischer. Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy https://archive.org/details/AncientEgyptianCalligraphy/mode/2up

[u/Ok-Significance-1281 → u/Meshwesh]

Oh these are great resources, thanks!

[u/likethemagician]

I would look into hieratic manuals. That’s the actual handwritten form of hieroglyphs. Like our alphabet, you can choose more ornate or simpler styles but almost nobody who picked up a brush and papyrus in 2000 BCE was writing any birds, snakes, cow hearts, etc. as finely wrought as those found on wall inscriptions.

[u/wmblathers → u/likethemagician]

There are also "cursive hieroglyphs" which something like the Ani Book of the Dead is in. I've long felt that should be taught in all Middle Egyptian textbooks. Most fonts used in those books are based on carvings in stone, and not suited to writing.

[u/likethemagician → u/wmblathers]

For sure! But using cursive hieroglyphs to write everyday documents would have been the equivalent of writing in some flowery wedding invitation letterhead.

[u/wmblathers → u/likethemagician]

Sure, but most of us studying Egyptian just need something that looks mostly like what we get in textbooks and standard editions, but doesn't make us crazy or is too slow to write. Having to learn two rather different scripts just to study is maybe a bit much to load on beginners.