Lettering

Lettering is composed of a few formal characteristics: simplicity, distinctiveness and proportion. Simplicity is defined as having the essential components of the letter; The structure of the letter is identifiable to its alphabet.{{Cite web |title=Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering. By Edward Johnston; a Project Gutenberg eBook. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47089/47089-h/47089-h.htm |access-date=2024-12-15 |website=www.gutenberg.org}} Distinctiveness is defined as the different characteristics of the letter being marked more intentionally to accentuate the distinguishable features. Proportion is defined as preserving the essential forms of a letter in conjunction to one another when exaggerating and dwarfing.

File:Sir Harry Johnston memorial plaque.JPG by Eric Gill|alt=A stone memorial tablet with deeply engraved lettering]]

Lettering includes that used for purposes of blueprints and comic books, as well as decorative lettering such as sign painting and custom graphics. For instance; on posters, for a letterhead or business wordmark, lettering in stone, lettering for advertisements, tire lettering, fileteado, graffiti,{{Cite book |last=Callingham |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/signwritingglass00call |title=Sign Writing and Glass Embossing |date=1871}} or on chalkboards.{{Cite book |last=Foster |first=Walter |title=Creative Lettering and Beyond |publisher=Quarto Publishing Group USA |year=2014}}

Lettering may be drawn, incised, applied using stencils,{{Cite web |last=Pool |first=Albert-Jan |author-link=Albert-Jan Pool |title=FF DIN: Digital Block Letters |url=https://www.fontfont.com/staticcontent/downloads/FF_DIN_Round_Digital_Block_Letters.pdf?1308319796 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330135712/https://www.fontfont.com/staticcontent/downloads/FF_DIN_Round_Digital_Block_Letters.pdf?1308319796 |archive-date=30 March 2017 |access-date=14 December 2016 |website=FontShop}}{{Cite web |last=Mosley |first=James |author-link=James Mosley |title=Lettres à jour: public stencil lettering in France |url=http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/lettres-jour-public-stencil-lettering.html |access-date=12 December 2015 |website=Type Foundry (blog)}}{{cite web |last1=MacMillan |first1=David |title=Why No "Type Designers" Here? |url=https://www.circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/typemaking/history/no-type-designers/index.html |website=Circuitous Root |access-date=2 July 2022}} using a digital medium with a stylus, or a vector program. Lettering that was not created using digital tools is commonly referred to as hand-lettering.

File:Brush_lettering_practice,_by_Emmanuel_Sevilla_3.jpg

In the past, almost all decorative lettering other than that on paper was created as custom or hand-painted lettering. The use of fonts in place of lettering has increased due to new printing methods, phototypesetting, and digital typesetting, which allow fonts to be printed at any desired size.{{Cite web |last=Simonson |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Simonson |title=Not a font |url=http://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/not-a-font |access-date=14 December 2016 |website=Mark Simonson Studio (blog)}}{{Cite web |last=Coles |first=Stephen |title=Lettering is not type |url=https://fontbureau.typenetwork.com/news/article/clear-definitions |website=Type Network |access-date=2019-07-25 |archive-date=2021-04-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427234402/https://fontbureau.typenetwork.com/news/article/clear-definitions |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |last=Johnston |first=Alastair |title=The Misery of Edwin Drood |url=http://www.booktryst.com/2012/10/the-misery-of-edwin-drood-bad.html |access-date=14 December 2016 |website=Booktryst}}{{Cite web |last=Shinn |first=Nick |title=The Golden Age of Hand Lettering in American Advertising |url=http://typeculture.com/academic-resource/articles-essays/the-golden-age-of-hand-lettering-in-american-advertising/ |access-date=1 April 2017 |website=Type Culture}}

More recently, there has been an influx of aspiring artists attempting hand-lettering with brush pens and digital mediums. Some popular styles are sans serif, serif, cursive/script, vintage, blackletter ("gothic") calligraphy, graffiti, and creative lettering.{{Cite web |date=2018-09-24 |title=What Are The Different Lettering Styles? |url=https://www.lettering-daily.com/types-of-lettering/ |access-date=2019-06-25 |website=Lettering Daily |language=en-US}}

• Seb Lester
• Phil Grimshaw
• Pablo Ferro
• Herb Lubalin
• Louise Fili
• Jessica Hische
• Alan Peckoclick
• Alex Trochut

{{blockquote| Calligraphy is based on penmanship; it’s essentially "writing letters." Lettering, on the other hand, is based on draftsmanship, i.e. "drawing letters." |source=Joseph Alessio{{Cite magazine |last=Joseph Alessio |date=January 17, 2013 |title=Understanding The Difference Between Type And Lettering |url=https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/01/understanding-difference-between-type-and-lettering/ |magazine=Smashing Magazine |access-date=8 May 2021}}}}

Lettering can be confused with similar terms, such as calligraphy or typography.

Calligraphy is known as a more rigid process, that requires learning the formal shapes of letters and often combining thick downstrokes with thin upstrokes. This style of writing is generally created with dip pens and inks. Some calligraphers and hand-letterers say that calligraphy created with brush pens becomes lettering or faux-calligraphy,{{Cite web |title=The Difference Between Hand Lettering, Calligraphy and Typography (+ Why It Truly Matters) |url=https://letterlanedesignstudio.com/blog/2016/3/22/the-difference-between-hand-lettering-calligraphy-and-typography |access-date=29 February 2020 |website=Letter Lane Design Studio|date=22 March 2016 }}, but others believe that the approach used to create the letters is more important than the tools used to do so.{{Cite web |title=What is the Difference Between Hand Lettering and Calligraphy |url=https://www.lettering-daily.com/difference-between-hand-lettering-and-calligraphy/ |access-date=29 February 2020 |website=Lettering Daily|date=3 October 2018 }},

Typography is the use of type in a repeating system, where each instance of the same letter looks the same.

Part of the reason why these misconceptions are common is that some font shops categorize their fonts as "hand-lettered", "illustrated" or "calligraphy". Said fonts can begin with a hand-lettered alphabet that is then digitized and turned into a repeatable system. This identifies them as typography, instead of lettering.

Hand Lettering for Beginners defines the three terms as follows: Lettering is the art of drawing letters, calligraphy is the art of writing letters and is related to the idea of penmanship, and typography is a repeated system of letters or the art of arranging type.

• Typeface anatomy, the graphic elements that make up letters in a typeface

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}

Many textbooks on lettering or books of example alphabets were published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Those linked below are free to read at archive.org.

• {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/textbookonletter00inte |title=A Textbook on Lettering and Sign Painting |publisher=International Correspondence Schools |year=1902 |location=Scranton, PA |oclc=1085618630}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/modernpaintingha00arms |title=Modern painting, hardwood finishing and sign writing |year=1914 |last1=Armstrong |first1=George D. |last2= Hodgson |first2= Frederick Thomas |last3= Delamotte |first3= Frances George |publisher=Sears, Roebuck |oclc=1049637942}}
• {{Cite book |author-link=Edward Johnston |last=Johnston | first=Edward |oclc=1158486814 |url=https://archive.org/stream/writingilluminat00johnuoft#page/n5/mode/2up |title=Writing & Illuminating & Lettering |year=1917 |series= The Artistic Crafts Series of Technical Handbooks |editor= W. R. Lethaby |publisher=John Hogg |location=London, England}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/musteralphabetev01unse |title=Muster-Alphabete : verschiedener Schriftarten in den neuesten Formen |language=de |year=1880 |oclc=1049698520}} (sampler)

{{Authority control}}

Category:Typography

Category:Signage

Category:Calligraphy