Architectural Lettering Guide
Each year when I teach hand lettering in my landscape graphics class ultimately someone says 'I can't do this. My printing is too messy.'
I truly believe anyone can sharpen their lettering skills, so I created these simple tips to help. In the end, your design looks more professional if your lettering is legible and organized, so its well worth the effort.
For those that create landscape plans digitally, enjoy this tutorial for doodling, scrapbooking, card-making, and sketching instead. As a bonus, I've included a at the end of this post too! Draw guidelines at the height you desire. Please use light lines, so these don't compete with your lettering. I suggest a hard lead pencil like a 3H to a 6H.
Architectural Lettering Guide Pdf
Never use ink for guidelines. You can use a ruler to measure these or a handy-dandy. Draw your lettering in pencil first (with hard lead once again). This will help you get the spacing correct. If these are light enough you don't even have to erase them after the ink is applied.
Architectural Lettering Guidelines
Now you can ink in your letters. Once you become more confident you can skip step #2. When drawing your final letters make sure they touch both the top and bottom guideline. When you stray from this your lettering becomes messy. Another key component to nice lettering is keeping the vertical lines parallel to each other.
Architectural Lettering Guide
Even if you want to italicize your letters, just be consistent with your angles. How do you keep verticals parallel? This is a great way to add neatness if you have a shakey hand. Just free-hand anything with a curve or angle (like Rs,Ps, Ks, Os, etc.).
Keep all your horizontal connections at relatively the same level. If the cross bar on your A is high, keep it high on your other letters. Consistency is key.
Explanation of Architectural Lettering:. It is expected as a designer or architect that all blueprints, drawings and designs have architectural lettering. This lettering was established ages ago by architects so that all writing on blueprints were legible therefore costly mistakes would not be made.
Practicing this lettering is still a necessary part of the curriculum in most architecture and design education, because it is still a necessary part of the job. Bad handwriting tends to make any design look amateur.
All handwriting should match the quality of the design. Practice is necessary to develop the skills needed to letter legibly. Just as each individual has a unique handwriting, they will also have a unique lettering style. Architectural lettering has an animated quality while appearing very uniform and neat. Guidelines are very light and almost invisible. They should be drawn with a 4H pencil while the lettering should be darker, drawn with a 2H pencil. (The higher the number, the lighter the lead.) Click here for more Summary of important points to remember are:.
4H lead for guidelines. 2H lead for lettering. Use light guidelines.
3/16 ” to ¼” guide lines for room labels, key or schedule titles, drawing title and client name in the title block. 1/8” guidelines for minor titles. Always use a straight edge to draw the vertical lines for your letters first; all other parts of the letters drawn freehand.
Letters are to be dark, dark, dark. Repair manual for 1997 chevy s10. Letters should all be the same width. On the Lettering Paper Provided. DRAW LETTERS “A-Z” IN CAPITALS ONLY, AND NUMBERS “0-9” (x3) Be sure to keep your slanted lines at a consistent slope and start the middle lines slightly above the half way line. Below are examples of how your lettering should look like. Architectural Lettering Test (Prove your Style).