ANST - Blazon Software

[clward at mmm.com]

Doug asked:
>I am brand new to the SCA, my first experience was this past Sunday
> at the coronation, I am looking for a software program to help me
>design my coat of arms, I beleive it is called "Blazon."  Do you
>know where I might be able to find it?

Blazon is shareware and is located at
http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/ph/research/tc/fincham/blazon/blazon.htm

Another program by the same name can be found at
http://www.naxs.com/people/thorgrim/download.html

However, all the Blazon program is is a very poor-quality little graphics
tool.  (YMMV) You actually would be *much* better off using a regular graphics
package plus some good clipart.  I use Visio Technical to create the graphics
for the coats of arms of the lady knights (see examples at
htp://www.realtime.com/~gunnora/ladyknights/) and I get great results with it.
I highly recommend Visio for a variety of drawing applications.  It is
especially good for the "artistically-impaired" since it uses "stencils" that
let you drag and drop the shapes you need into the drawing as you need them.
You can get more information about Visio at http://204.236.15.213/index.html
-- Note that this is a personal recommendation, I do not work for Visio or
anything like that.

If you want the software to help you with the rules of heraldry, you will find
that the learning the basics of heraldic design is simpler than you think.
Start at the SCA Heraldry page, http://www.sca.org/heraldry/ for basic
information and then check out the various materials to help you learn the
rules of heraldry at http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/education.html

You will also find that your local SCA herald should be able to help you not
only in designing your device, but the local herald can probably refer you to
someone locally who can help you with the art as well.

In addition, for general knowledge there are a number of very good heraldry
pages on the Web.  A few include:

http://www.digiserve.com/heraldry/
http://www.fview.demon.co.uk/heraldry/heraldry.htm
http://www2.okstate.edu/people/wcross/Heraldry.html

There are many, many more beyond these.

Enjoy!

::GUNNORA::

Writing from work -- all replies go to gunnora at bga.com



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