Rather than taking years to learn the millions of different block lettering styles you might observe on Pinterest and Instagram, I've developed a block lettering workbook that I believe is the best place to start learning. I explain a little bit more about this method of learning in this post, but briefly: I believe the best way to learn to draw letters is to mimic and trace existing letters, and the best letters to trace and mimic are quality computer fonts that have been tested by time. For a longer explanation, check out that article.
This article is an explanation of why I chose these five particular computer fonts as a starting point.
First, they are a mix of serif and sans-serif fonts, which come in extremely handy.
Second, these fonts represent five historical categories of fonts: old style serif, transitional serif, slab serif, neo-grotesque sans-serif, and geometric sans-serif. If that sounds like a bunch of nonsense to you, you're reading the right article. I'll explain below.
Because they represent five very different categories of fonts, nearly every lettering style you will meet will relate to one of these five fonts in some way, even if something about them is a little bit different. Once you learn these five fonts well, you can alter them to make your own styles or to fit a particular piece you are trying to create.
Familiarizing yourself with their ins and outs will help you be able to identify the unique traits of other fonts, to be able to mimic them too. These five fonts are, in a sense, a very quick survey of font history, and are a great starting place for getting to know typography, which is the basis of hand-lettering.
Once you download the workbook and begin to trace the letters, try to identify the summary of traits for each font that I detail below. Try to compare and contrast each letter. In addition, the workbook contains a list of things to observe about fonts that will help you be able to trace and mimic them better.
Iowan old style
Iowan is an old style serif, from a time period that spans roughly from the mid-1400’s to the early 1700’s. This was a time when, “Rather than using the blackletter [...] that Gutenberg used, printers began to create type mimicking the Latin writing hand of the philosophers and scribes of the time.”1 The earliest of the old style serifs are more calligraphic in nature; meaning, some letters are angled and not perfectly upright, some serifs are angled as well, and all serifs are strongly bracketed (meaning, there is a curve that connects the serif to the rest of the letter). These fonts tend to have a lower contrast between thick and thin strokes.
Baskerville, created in the late 1700’s, is our representative for the transitional typefaces, which mark the transition between old style and modernist typefaces. Printing technology had progressed so that more character detail could be carried over into the final product, so these typefaces tend to be a little more complex and detailed. They are usually very upright and not slanted, serifs become flatter, and there is a higher contrast between thick and thin.
I did not choose to officially include a modernist serif (1800’s-1900’s), but this group bears mentioning here. Didot or Bodoni are good representations of this period. Once you’ve had experience with Iowan and Baskerville, these will be easy to replicate. They are known for their extreme contrast between thick and thin and abrupt/bracketed serifs (meaning, there is no curve connecting the serif to the rest of the letter; it joins it at a right angle).
Next, also during this timeframe are the slab serifs, which are characterized by—you guessed it—serifs that are as thick as slabs! Some slab serif typefaces do have bracketed serifs, and some don’t. Our font selection, Adelle, finds a happy medium between the two.
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque sans-serif. Stroke widths are pretty consistent; there is very little contrast between thick and thin. The x-height (the height of the letters without the ascenders and descenders) is pretty tall. Helvetica has become one of the most widely-used sans-serif fonts, and is a good jumping off point for creating other sans-serif variations with your hand-lettering, which is why I include it here.
And finally, I included Futura, one of the most popular geometric sans serifs. These typefaces also have very little stroke contrast, and each letter is usually either circular or rectangular (i.e. geometric).
You might have several of these fonts on your own computer, and could print them off and trace them. However, I have created some free, simple worksheets for each of these fonts to get you started.
These worksheets are specifically designed with learning block lettering in mind:
- Each letter is positioned on a grid, so that its individual characteristics can be observed and easily mimicked.
- There will be room to both trace and try each letter on your own. I’ve also included tips for you based on how I like to go about drawing certain letters.
- At the beginning of the workbook, I’ve created a guide to observing and mimicking letters to get you started, along with other tips and tricks.
- This practice page can be printed on any kind of letter-sized paper (8.5in x 11in).
Files are for one user only. You may print the file as many times as you'd like, but for personal use only. This product may not be sold or gifted, either in print or digital form; however, feel free to share this blog post with your friends!
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- Quote from “Making Sense of Type Classification, Pt. 1” by Joseph Alessio ↩︎
- Making Sense of Type Classification, Part 1 and Part 2, by Joseph Alessio on Smashing Magazine
- The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
- Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
- A Beautifully Illustrated Glossary Of Typographic Terms You Should Know by Janie Kliever