They have nothing in common except that "they are both words and the purpose is to look good".
The background of calligraphy is different: the background of calligraphy is the evolution of civilization and the development of Chinese characters, accompanied by the development of papermaking, pen-making technology, philology and ancient poetry.
The generation of design fonts is based on the development of modern industry, media, advertising and other industries.
Reasons, purposes (or meanings) are different: Ancient calligraphers wrote to learn from literati, complete work tasks, cultivate temperament and their hobbies. Now "calligraphers" write for exhibitions, selling money, teaching, personal interests and so on.
Design fonts are produced for good-looking and fun, occasionally because of the designer's own interest, more for the success of products, for the improvement of user experience, for attracting specific user groups and so on.
The process is different: calligraphy is practiced, learned and appears. If you don't have 20 years of skill, you can't be a real calligrapher. You must repeatedly copy the tablets and ink of your predecessors and strive to achieve something. Learners may be smart or dull, and sometimes they will be inspired in the process of learning, but there are no shortcuts or geniuses. Every word is the result of thousands of exercises.
Fonts are designed, and the design process can be thought hard, patted on the head, or accidentally obtained ... in short, there are many paths.
Different aesthetic standards: the level of calligraphy is very obvious. Wang Xizhi is the first in history, and there is basically no dispute. Zhong presented Liu Zhaosu with Huang Chengtie Weng Liu ... A master is a master, and anything written casually is worth thousands of dollars. Real cursive script, each character has evaluation criteria and statutes to follow.
The evaluation criteria for designing fonts are inconsistent, such as cute style, serious style, handsome and straight, clever and grotesque ... There is often no unified standard for evaluating the success of a font.
Different audiences: the audience of calligraphy is relatively narrow, and the general public often don't know much about the quality, significance and background of calligraphy. At most, they can see the quality of regular script. There is a saying that "regular script does not deceive".
The designed fonts have a wide audience, which can be understood by everyone and can be seen everywhere.
The importance is different: I am a calligraphy lover, so this article can be ignored.
The importance of designing fonts cannot be compared with that of calligraphy, which is the epitome of the whole China culture and the essence of thousands of years of civilization. Almost all historical and cultural celebrities who can name can write good words! It can be seen that calligraphy is closely related to China culture and China history. If you don't work hard to write a good hand, or you don't want to be able to write a good hand, then as a China person, you really should feel pity.