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Engineering Lettering

The document provides guidance on lettering for technical drawings. It discusses that background areas between letters and words should be equally spaced and words clearly separated. Letters can be varied in width and thickness for different styles. Uniformity is essential in letter height, proportion, spacing, and line strength. Guidelines should be used to ensure uniformity in height, inclination, and spacing. The choice of pen or pencil depends on letter size and desired line thickness. Letters are designed to have balanced black and white areas for a pleasing appearance. Specific guidelines are provided for capital and lowercase letters, numbers, fractions, and their heights and spacing. Various lettering devices are now available, but lettering must still meet legibility standards. Good lettering requires knowledge

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253 views3 pages

Engineering Lettering

The document provides guidance on lettering for technical drawings. It discusses that background areas between letters and words should be equally spaced and words clearly separated. Letters can be varied in width and thickness for different styles. Uniformity is essential in letter height, proportion, spacing, and line strength. Guidelines should be used to ensure uniformity in height, inclination, and spacing. The choice of pen or pencil depends on letter size and desired line thickness. Letters are designed to have balanced black and white areas for a pleasing appearance. Specific guidelines are provided for capital and lowercase letters, numbers, fractions, and their heights and spacing. Various lettering devices are now available, but lettering must still meet legibility standards. Good lettering requires knowledge

Uploaded by

ZeejnA
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Background areas between letters and words should appear

approximately equal, and words should be clearly separated by a space equal


to the height of the lettering. Only when special emphasis is necessary should
the lettering be underlined. Also, it is not desirable to vary the size of the
lettering according to the size of the drawing except when a drawing is to
be reduced in reproduction.
To meet design or space requirements, letters may be narrower and
spaced closer together. In this case, they are called compressed or
condensed letters. If the letters are wider than normal, they are referred to as
extended letters. Letters also vary as to thickness of the stems or strokes.
Letter shaving very thin stems are called lightface, while those having heavy
stems are called bold face.
In any style of lettering, uniformity is essential. Uniformity in height,
proportion, inclination, strength of lines, spacing of letters, and spacing of
words ensures a pleasing appearance.
Uniformity in spacing of letters is a matter of equalizing spaces by eye.
The background areas between letters, not the distances between them,
should be approximately equal. Space words well apart, but space letters
closely within words. Make the spaces between words approximately equal to
a capital O.
Uniformity in height and inclination is promoted by the use of light
guide lines. As guide in lettering, extremely light horizontal lines are necessary
to regulate the height of letters. In addition, light vertical or inclined lines are
needed to keep the letters uniformly vertical or inclined. A simple method
of spacing horizontal guidelines is to use a scale or bow dividers. Another
convenient instrument for drawing guide lines for lettering, dimension figures
and section lines are the lettering triangle.
Uniformity in strength of lines can only be obtained by the skilled use of
properly selected pencils and pens. Either pencils or pens can be used in
lettering. Pencil letters are best made with a medium-soft lead with a conical

point or with a suitable thin-lead mechanical pencil. The choice of a pen for
lettering, in contrast, is determined by the size and style of the letters, the
thickness of stroke desired, and the personal preference of the drafter.
Good lettering involves artistic design, in which the white and black
areas are carefully balanced to produce a pleasing effect. Letters are designed
to look well, and some allowances must be made for errors interception. If the
upper portions of certain letters and numerals are equal in width to the lower
portions, the characters appear too-heavy. To correct this, the upper portions
are reduced in size where possible, thereby producing the effect of stability
and a more pleasing appearance.
On working drawings, vertical capital letters are commonly made %
(3.22 mm) high, with the space between lines of lettering from three fifths to
the full height of the letters. For inclined capital letters, the spacing of
horizontal guidelines is the same as for vertical capital lettering. The ANSIrecommended slope of 2 in 5 (or 68.2 with horizontal) may be established by
drawing a slope triangle and drawing the guide lines at random with the Tsquare and triangle. When large and small capitals are used in combination,
the small capitals should be three fifths to two thirds as high as the large
capitals.
On the other hand, lowercase letter shave four horizontal guide lines,
called the cap line, waist line, base line and drop line. Strokes of letters that
extend up to the cap line are called ascenders and those that extend down to
the drop line, descenders. In spacing horizontal guide lines, the ratio of the
distance between the base and waist lines with the distance between the base
and cap line ma y vary from 2:3 or 3:5. The order and direction of strokes and
the proportion of inclined lowercase letters are the same as those of vertical
lowercase letters.
Complete guide lines should be drawn for whole numbers and
fractions, especially for beginners. Fractions are twice the height of the
corresponding whole numbers. Make the numerator and the denominator
each about three fourths as high as the whole number to allow ample clear

space between them and the fraction bar. For dimensioning, the most
commonly used height for whole numbers is % (3.22 mm), and for fractions
% (6.4 mm).
Today, various forms of press-on lettering and special lettering devices
are available. In addition, all computer-aided drafting systems have the
capability to produce letters of different heights and styles and to make
changes as required. In whatever way the lettering is applied to the drawing
and whatever styles of lettering is used, the lettering must meet the
requirements for legibility and microfilm reproduction.
It should be remembered that good lettering is always accomplished by
conscious effort, though good muscular coordination is of great assistance.
There are three necessary aspects of learning to letter knowledge of the
proportions and forms of letters and the order of strokes, knowledge of
composition or spacing, and persistent practice with continuous effort to
improve.

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