LETTERING

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 IMPORTANCE OF ENGINEERING Lettering

LETTERING

The lettering used in mechanical drawing is a single stroke, freehand form

called single stroke gothic.

It was formulated in the late 19th century when C.W. Reinhardt worked
out a series of strokes for each letter of the alphabets.

The expression single—stroke means that the width of the straight and
curved lines that forms the letters are the same width as the strokes of
the pen or pencil.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 IMPORTANCE OF ENGINEERING Lettering

LETTERING

To convey complete information working drawing must graphically

portray the object in various views accompanied by size description
and instructive specifications in the form of figured dimensions and
notes.

All dimensions and notes should be lettered freehand in a plain, legible

style that can be rapidly executed.

Poor lettering detracts from the appearance of a drawing and often impairs
its usefulness regardless of the quality of line work.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering

PROPORTION OF LETTERS

Although there is no fixed standard proportion of letters, certain

definite rules in their design must be observed.

The recognized characteristics of each letter should be carefully

studied and then thoroughly learned through practice.

It is advisable for the beginner to follow the fixed proportions rather

than rely on his untrained eye.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering

PROPORTION OF LETTERS

Later, after he has thoroughly mastered the art of lettering his

individuality will be revealed naturally by slight variations in the
shaped and proportions of some letters.

It is often desirable to increase and decrease the width of the letters

in order to make a word or group of words fill a certain space.

Letters narrower than the normal letters of the same height are
called compressed letters, those that are wider are called
extended letters.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering

Proportion Of Letters
The proportion is given by this formula:

where:
C = capital or uppercase letters

2 5
N = number or numerals
L = long stem
2
C=N=L and s=
s = short oval & stem
C or s= N t= C
3 3 6

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

 Lettering

Guidelines
To attain uniform height of letter, very light horizontal guidelines called
capital line, waist line, base line and drop line are drawn.

In addition, very light vertical and inclined lined are drawn at random to
keep the letters uniform vertical or inclined.

Guidelines are absolutely essential for good lettering.

They must be drawn very light, so they don’t need to be erased.

Use relatively hard pencil lead such as H with long conical points.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering

Guidelines

Capital Lines

Waist Line

Base Line

Drop Line

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering

STABILITY

If the width of the lower portion of a certain letters to be drawn equal to the width of the upper portion it will make the letters unstable and too heavy.

To correct this, the upper portion of the letters B, E, F, S, X, & Z, and the numbers 2, 3 and 8 must be reduced slightly to give it a stable appearance.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering

Styles Of Letters

There are two styles of letters, the vertical and slant.

The slant letters are inclined at approximately 72 degrees.

Vertical letters are constructed 90 degrees with horizontal plane.

VERTICAL LETTERS SLANT LETTERS

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering

Elements Of Letters

Stem letters
Straight line of the letters that is drawn with a single downward stroke of the
hand.

3 4
1 2 2
3 4 1

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering

Elements Of Letters

Oval letters
The oval is the other element of the letter.
They resemble ellipses.
The oval is the curved lines in a letter that is drawn in one way or
two way strokes of the hand.

1 12 1 12

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering

Properties Of Good Stem

It must be perfectly straight.

It must be tangent to oval and touches exactly the horizontal guidelines.

It must be uniform in slope.

It must be uniform in thickness.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering
Properties Of Good Oval
It must be smooth and not pumpkin seed shaped.

It should have no appendages.

It must be tangent to stem and guidelines.

It must be uniform in slope

It must be uniform in thickness.

The width must be uniform throughout.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering
Methods Of Constructions

Parallelogram method
Used by beginners using all the guidelines like the horizontal,
vertical and inclined guidelines.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering
Methods Of Constructions
Two — line method
Used by semi—skilled draftsman using horizontal guidelines
only.

Sight method
Used by skilled draftsman wherein letters are constructed
without guidelines.

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

Lettering Instrumental Drawing Geometrical Construction Working Drawing Isometric Drawing

 Lettering
Methods Of Constructions

V
E
S
R
I
T
N
I
G
C
L
A
E
L
S
L
T
E
R
T
O
T
K
E
E
R
I
N
G

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

 Lettering
Methods Of Constructions
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

SINGLE STROKE INCLINED LETTERING

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES

 Lettering
Methods Of Constructions

15
6 3
4 2 4 4 2 10 COMPOSITION OF LETTERS AND NUMERALS
In order that a piece of composition may
look well, it must have uniformity in slope, weight,
size and spacing of letters, words and sentences.
Compact and uniform lettering is not only
easily read but is beautiful as well.
Capital letters, numerals, integers and long
stems of lower case letters must have the same
height, short stems and ovals must be the2long stems.
In a fractional number, the numerator 3and
denominator must have the same height and
must be2 the integer.
3

COURSE & SECT. NAME: PLATE NO:

SEAT NO. INSTRUCTOR: DATE: GRADE

MAPUA – DEPARTMENT OF MULTIMEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES