I've never seen heraldry-design software that contained any
intelligence about _period_ designs. Just because you can build it
doesn't mean it's a good re-creation of pre-16th century heraldry
from the culture you want to re-create.
It will get me started in the right direction, however.
Not really, if your goal is to end up with arms that fit well into
some medieval culture. Most of the charges that the program offers
will not be appropriate for most cultures. Many other choices won't
be, either. The artistic style will certainly be modern.
Here's an analogy: Suppose I gave you a piece of software that allows
you design houses. Do you think it would be a good starting point for
designing a 15th century townhouse that might have been found in the
better neighborhoods of Milan? It might -- perhaps -- contain the
features you would need to design such a house, but if you didn't know
which elements to use, the chances are almost 100% that you'd end up
with the wrong thing.
Heraldry software can be useful in preparing drawings of a design if
you aren't good at drawing. If you have other sources to guide you on
designs appropriate for your medieval culture, then it might be a
useful tool in trying out designs. But don't mistake it for a useful
_design_ tool if your goal is to re-create something plausibly
medieval.
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Arval ***@mittle.users.panix.com