Helen Hadfield

Lisa Chang
What is Lettering?
Lettering is an umbrella term used to describe the art of drawing letters. There are many differ-
ent terms used in lettering, and these include hand lettering, calligraphy, and typography.

Hand lettering is more specific to the art of drawing letters specifically by hand, as opposed
to writing letters. In hand lettering, letters are usually sketched using pencil and outlined using
markers, fine liners, or other pens.

Helen Hadfield Lisa Chang

Calligraphy is the art of writing letters, relating to the idea of penmanship. Usually, calligraphy is
done using specific tools, such as a nib and ink. The difference between calligraphy and cursive
is the variation in line thickness. There are many different forms of calligraphy, including pointed
pen, brush, and broad edge.

Lisa Chang Lisa Chang

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Typography is the art and technique of arranging letters, as
opposed to drawing or writing letters. typography involves
font styles, appearance and structure used to convey a
message in a more appealing way.

Lisa Chang Starbucks Advertisement

In this series, we will be more focused on the art of hand lettering and how to begin.

The best part of hand lettering is that it does not require any fancy or expensive tools to get
started. All you really need to begin your hand lettering journey is a pencil and paper, and if you
have it, eraser and pen.

But, just in case you want to see what other potential supplies can be used, we have included
our favorite tools & supplies at the end of this book.

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Overview of Lettering Styles
Monoline

Monoline refers to the style of letters that have a consistent line weight throughout the entire
letter. Monoline can be thick or thin, but there is no variation of thick and thin stroke.

This style of design can work well with the less important words in your composition.

The best tool to use when doing monoline lettering is a bullet tipped marker.

Block Letters (aka sans serif lettering)

Block lettering, or sans serif lettering, is similar to monoline as it tends to have the same
weight all around a letter.

However, instead of being created by a single stroke from a pen, block letters have heavier
weight and can be clear on the inside.

Script

Script is also known as cursive, and it is what we (used to) learn in school.

There are three common types of script in lettering: cursive, brush calligraphy, and faux
calligraphy. In cursive, all letters tend to be connected to each other and are written in one
continuous motion without lifting the pen, while the calligraphies are require the lifting of your
pen between each stroke.

Cursive Brush Calligraphy Faux Calligraphy

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Serif

The small lines you see on the end of some letter strokes are known as ‘serifs’.

They are found in many typefaces such as Times New Roman.

Serif letters have specific rules to follow. Though they can be moulded and stylised, these
rules must mostly be followed.

Slab serif is a variant of serif that is more box-like, and is a lot less stringent in the rules com-
pared to normal serif scripts.

Serif

Slab Serif

Typewriter

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General Rules

These are some tips and tricks to keep in mind about creating letters in general. We will delve
more deeply into these in the following workbooks.

◊ Pay attention to strokes

- Keep them consistent in width, especially when creating block letters.

- Know where the thick strokes and thin strokes should be, particularly where the thick
strokes are on M, N, and W. The general rule is thick downstrokes, thin upstrokes.

◊ Overshoot

- Curved and pointed letters create an optical illusion that they’re smaller than flat
letters.
- Therefore, you need to overshoot the top of the letters over the cap height slightly to
stop this from happening.

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 ◊ Length of bars

- When all bars of a letter are extended to the same width, (e.g., E, F) there is another
optical illusion that makes the bars look as if they’re longer.
- Therefore, always design the middle bar slightly shorter.

◊ M & W

- M and W are generally wider than all other letters. It does not make much difference in
monoline lettering, but it’s worth considering when drawing block letters.
- Bring the centre of M & W past the x-height. Though you can have the centers end
at varying points, having them stop between the x-height and base (or cap) line make
them look more correct.

◊ How to draw an R

- Draw the leg diagonally from the top. This will help you place the leg correctly and at
the right angle, making it look right every time with ease.

◊ Break the rules

- Once you know and understand the rules, then you can break them. Practice drawing
letters correctly first before exploring too much with style

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Lettering in Life
Lettering is everywhere you look, from sign writing to packaging, posters, advertisements,
murals and other branding. If you look around you, you can see lettering in all aspects of your
life. Not only is lettering an inexpensive skill to learn, it is also very useful as it has the potential
to make you money.

Below are some examples of lettering in our lives and where it can be applied, but we also
encourage you to take a look around the next time you are out and about and see how many
opportunities there are for lettering.

Monster Engergy Drink Logo

Photo by Gavin Allanwood on Unsplash

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 Photo by Adam Thomas on Unsplash

Photo by Ilse Orei on Unsplash

McDonald’s advertisement

Photo by Ingridi Alves Photograph on Unsplash 8

Tools and Materials
Starting hand lettering is really easy and simple. There is no need to go shopping for tools and
supplies like you may have to with calligraphy. All you need to start is a pencil and paper!

However, you may want to have a ruler and eraser at hand to make things easier for you.

Fineliners are great for inking if you want to keep your pieces for a long time, and they come in
many different sizes.

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We have listed our recommended tools below. This is purely a list of the things we personally
enjoy using.

Pencil Eraser

 Pentel 205 mechanical pencil  Faber Castell kneadable eraser

 Uniball Chroma 0.7  Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser

Fineliners and Pens Paper

 Sakura Micron Pigma fineliners  Rhodia dot pads

 Posca Paint Pens  Archer & Olive dot journals
 Gelly Roll Gel Pens  Seawhite of Brighton Blank Sketchbook
 Uniball Signo (especially white)  HP Premium Choice Laserjet
 Tombow Fudenosuke Hard Tip
 Uni Pin Brush Pen

Miscellaneous

 Compass
 Ruler
 Gray pen or marker

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If you have any questions, you can find us at:

Helen
IG || artistnamedhelen

Lisa
IG || nolalettering
FB || nolalettering

Or join us in
The Lettering Community Facebook group
(www.facebook.com/groups/letteringcommunity)

The Letterverse Discord server

(https://discord.gg/zP7AYWj)