Illumination and You: Fancy letters for your PMs

Hi guys,

I've been getting a lot of questions from players recently about how I make the calligraphic letters my character sends out (if you haven't received one, I'm sure you will at some point in the near future). So, for those who are curious, here's one of my secrets:

1) Google search for images of parchment. Once you've found the paper/parchment you want to use, take a quick screen shot of it.
2) Open up a Paint/Image editing program. It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive. Personally, I use the generic Paint program that came with my computer. Once you've opened up your program, paste the screen shot you took earlier into it.
3) Use the SelectSpace and Crop tool to remove any unwanted parts.
4) Select the Text tool to create an area in which you can write on your parchment image. When you do this, depending on your program, you should have a variety of font styles to choose from. Take some time to go through and find one which you like and is appropriate for the game world/your character.
5) The rest is all formatting and finding ways to make the letters look good on the page.

As a general tip, avoid parchment/paper that have been folded or heavily worn as the writing portion of your letter will appear as plaintext, and will look out of place or corny when it doesn't follow the folds present in the image.

Other than that play around, experiment, and have fun with the creative process.
Keep your quill quick and your wit quicker!

I saw the final product of this process, and it looks nice.

Here 's something that will also work, though not quite as fancy.