I've updated my coat of arms visual designer software. It is hopefully a great tool for create a coat of arms for your character, NPCs, countries of your world or organization. Here's a sample of what it creates, although designs can get much more complex when quartered, divided, etc.:
Short list of updates: The shield's shape is closer to the classical french shield and the curve is smoother, the scroll for a name or motto is a lot nicer (curvy instead of more like a rectangle) and I added 15 new charges (mostly wolves, stags, wyverns, and talbots (dogs)).
Here's a link to more details on the update: inkwellideas.com/coat_of_arms/?p=226
And here's a link straight to the software: inkwellideas.com/coat_of_arms/?page_id=8
(Keep in mind that while the software runs in your web browser, going to this page downloads a 4MB file because the software has many icons for the graphics used.)
very cool application!
may I request a few more weapons? Hammers, in paricular.
cheers!
Nifty. This would've saved me a lot of trouble when I designed my PC group's guild crest.
I was having some Java based issues although my stuff is all up to date. Meh, I was still able to kick out two before things started barfing. Here's my pre-marriage Coat of Arms, and I'm told by experts it's one of the oldest ones to appear quartered:
And here's my post-marriage Coat of Arms, combining my husband's:
According to those in the know, citizens of the United States of America are free to do whatever they wish regarding rules of Coats of Arms, so we altered my husband's a little. Rather than a stag's head we went with the whole hart, leaving the original colors but making it trippant. The battle axe is a personal symbol for him reflecting his triumphs over some serious personal adversity. The symbols on my half are the original wolf passant from unknown ages back, and the fluer de lis which, if it had a purple background, would have come form the King of France himself some other unknown ages back. Being blue, however, it was awarded by lesser royalty, probably a prince.
Technically, mine should be a lozenge, but I didn't notice an option for that. I once did a full layout of my married CoA including crests and supporters (I believe that's called a "blazon"), but as such things are infinitely customizable even by the proper rules of heraldry, I doubt any program could manage it!
Bravo, I say! Is there a way to download the program to my computer instead of having to use it online? I couldn't find any.
Agh! I'm sorry, the full display with supporters, etc is called an "achievement". "Blazon" is the language used to describe the Coat of Arms and achievement.
Yeah, I'm a heraldry geek as well. I know I didn't use the proper terminology (argent, azure, sable, purpur, etc.), but so far we have no kings here to behead me.
Thanks all for the compliments and questions and examples!
A few notes:
- Lozenge is available in the software. Go to the the "Tools" menu in the software and then "Select shield shape" and there are a couple of options, including Lozenge. More will be coming soon.
- There isn't a downloadable version yet, but there will be soon. In the next few weeks I'll be putting that together. It will be just like the web-based version, but you'll be able to run it off-line, resize it so you'll be able to create larger graphics, resize the graphics to be even larger when you save so the graphics will print even more nicely, and probably eventually have a few other extra features. For $10 or less.
- Hammers are on my list to add.
- For personal arms for citizens of the US, there is the American Heraldry Society. I think you're right that there is no one to officially enforce arms (although the US Military does have a group that does this for the military) the American Heraldry Society does attempt to fill the gap allowing people to register arms that no other AHS member may have, checking for conflicts and ensuring that the rules/conventions of Heraldry are observed.