What kinds of fonts are there in calligraphy and their characteristics?

Calligraphy fonts can be roughly divided into five types: seal script, official script, cursive script, running script and regular script. Their respective characteristics are:

Seal script: seal script is a general term for big seal script and small seal script. The brushwork is thin and powerful, with many straight lines. There are Fang Bi, round pen and sharp pen, and there are many "hanging needles" for writing. Big seal script refers to inscriptions on bronze inscriptions, bronzes and six-country scripts, which retain the obvious characteristics of ancient hieroglyphics. Xiao Zhuan, also known as "Qin Zhuan", is a common character of Qin State and a simplified font of Da Zhuan. Its characteristics are wide and flat, stretching from left to right, balanced and symmetrical, neat and even.

Official script: Official script is developed from seal script, which is to simplify seal script, turn circle into square and turn arc into straight. Its structural characteristics are that the font is flat and square, spreading from left to right, raising and closing the pen in a swallow-tail, the circle becomes square, the arc becomes straight, the dots are drawn and broken, and the thickness change is strengthened.

Cursive script: Cursive script was formed in the Han Dynasty and evolved from official script for simplicity. It is characterized by simple structure and continuous strokes.

Running script: Running script is a font between regular script and cursive script, which is produced to make up for the slow writing speed of regular script and the illegible cursive script. Characterized by neat and clear, flying and lively.

Regular script: Regular script is also called regular script, real script and official script. It gradually evolved from official script, becoming more simplified and more horizontal and vertical. The font is square and the rules are strict.