Name that curlicue

October 30, 2005 8:51 AM

What are these ornamental curlicues called and where can I find more that are free?

I am working on designing my wedding invitations and am considering using the curlicue ornamentations. But without knowing what to call them, I am having difficulting pulling them up on google. That coupled with the impossibility of googling the word free is making my dream difficult. Does anyone know where I can find some that are free for use?

An alternative style I'm looking for is like the arabesque flowers currently on the Nokia website or this wrapping paper.

posted by GeneticFreek to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Free to reproduce or free to access? There's a zillion Dover and other books available with copyright-free scrollwork designs, flourishes and other printer's decorations for scanning; some even come with CDs full of hi-rez images. Try searching the Dover Pictorial Archive site and amazon books using the keywords listed on the first page you ref in your query. Don’t know any websites with free downloads of these, sorry. Depending on where you live (big city? Near an art school?) you my find some of this stuff in a library.
Happy hunting...
posted by dpcoffin at 9:16 AM on October 30, 2005

My first instinct is that you should look for ornament fonts, or dingbat fonts. Such as this "Nat Vignette" at myfonts.com or "Fleurons One." There's also this "Calligraphic Ornaments" font, from linotype.com. These cost money, but perhaps you could find some free ones by googling a combination of the words dingbat, ornament, font, freeware and free.
posted by Uncle Glendinning at 9:19 AM on October 30, 2005

dpcoffin beat me to it, but here's a likely Dover candidate. $15, though.
posted by small_ruminant at 9:19 AM on October 30, 2005

There are 17 free scrollwork brushes for Photoshop here.

I only searched for "scrollwork" so there may be more. You have to register with Adobe Studio to get them (Bugmenot).

I only use Photoshop, but these files may work with other programs.
posted by sevenless at 10:21 AM on October 30, 2005

yup--ornament fonts. (there may be one you could use here)
posted by amberglow at 10:49 AM on October 30, 2005

Now that you know what you're looking for go to the library!
posted by Sara Anne at 3:02 PM on October 30, 2005

And you asked about synonyms for curlicue: arabesque, flourish, ornament(ation), scroll(work), swirl, tendril, whirl, whorl
posted by rob511 at 3:48 PM on October 30, 2005

Free for personal use here: House of Lime

I've used them myself; head to the Ds for "designer" and Os for "ornamental" (and maybe even a couple others, there are a lot of dingbats here).
posted by artifarce at 7:58 AM on October 31, 2005