History of Lettering

Lettering was discovered by Charles W. Reinhardt in 19th century as he draft letters

of the alphabets that are written in Gothic letters. Inclined letters was also included
in his drafts that are about 72 degrees inclined. His letters were only written in
single stroke Gothic lettering to give emphasis on the weight of line produced by a
pencil. His work became a first step in introducing the world to technical lettering
and became a standard basis for style in lettering. In year 1935, the American
National Standards Institute has provided other styles of lettering which are
currently used and known as standard for lettering (Timbol, 2014). Lettering was
then used together with drafts and designs or drawings to indicate sizes and notes
in providing information with a neat work.
Background of Technical Lettering
Technical lettering is essential in engineering because it enables an individual
practice its legible hand writing of letters and numbers which may reflect on his
work and pride either inside or outside of the place of work. It often used in drafting
and Computer Aided Design drawing. It is used widely in demonstrating the
provisions and providing definition, dimensions, and instruction of an object in a
technical drawing. In addition, it is also a method of writing letters, numbers and
other significant letterings in a technical drawing. It includes freehand lettering of
lines, letters, and numbers as the first step before writing engineering letters.
Technical lettering also include proportion of letters to obtain a legible and plain
style of work or drawing. It provides measurements in every letter or any character
to attain consistency in lettering and teach beginners the fixed proportion for it to
be mastered (“Engineering Drawing and Graphics”, 1992).
Guide for a Better Technical Lettering
This can serve as a techniques are used to produce a legible handwriting using
different drawing instruments and the following guides are:
1. Stability
- It is where the upper part of the letters are smaller compared to its tail
or bottom, for example, number five and eight has shorter or smaller
upper part compared to its lower part or its tail (Figure 1).

(insert figure 1 of five and eight)

2. Composition
- Composition pertains to the proportions or measurement provided as
standard. One must comply to this criteria before achieving equal length
and height or equal portion.
3. Uniformity
- The other word for uniformity is “evenness” and therefore, letters
should be written equally in width or height. For example, two letter “D”
and “E” are both written identically (Figure 2 and Figure 3).

(draw two D and E identically)

4. Alignment
- Alignment is about writing all letters that are parallel to each other, it
could be either written vertically which has 90 degrees axis and inclined
with 72 degrees axis (Figure 4 and Figure 5).

(draw 3 letters vertical and inclined with degrees to show alignment)

Guidelines in Lettering
In achieving a legible lettering and clean work, letter must have constant height.
This guidelines have four lines: capital line, waist line, base line and drop line which
are often used to have an easier lettering experience and is draw lightly so that it
will be not needed to erase on the workspace. Guidelines can be used both in
vertical or inclined lettering and has measurement of 2-4-2 whereas 2 millimeters
between the capital line and waist line, 4 millimeter between the waist line and
baseline, and 2 millimeter between the base line and drop line. See Figure 6.
(Draw the guidelines in actual measurement and enlarge photo)
Drawing Techniques
1. Horizontal Lines
Work and place the sheet in a drawing board or plane surface that has no
convex or concave edges and stick it using a tape. Know the function of a T-
square is significant. Using the head and blade of the T-square, place the
head against the edge of the board and make sure the blade has no nicks.
Place the pencil at the edge of the blade and hold it about 60 degrees
pointing to the direction of the line. Grasp the pencil lightly.

2. Vertical Lines
The needed material in creating a vertical line is a T-square and a triangle, it
could be the 30 x 60 degrees triangle or 45 degrees triangle because both
have 90 degrees angle. After placing the T-square against the edge of the
drawing board, place and stick the opposite side of the triangle on blade of
the T- square and trace adjacent side of the triangle on the designated area
of the sheet to create a vertical line.

3. Inclined Lines
In creating an inclined line, T-square and a triangle is necessary, it could be
the 30 x 60 degrees triangle or 45 degrees triangle can be used. Just like in
constructing vertical line, place the adjacent or opposite side triangle of the
triangle against the blade of T-square and trace the hypotenuse of the
triangle for drawing inclined lines.
Lettering Styles of Technical Engineering
Technical Lettering consist of lettering styles that are used often in drafting or CAD
drawing. There are several types of standard styles in lettering are the Roman
lettering, Gothic lettering, Freehand Lettering, and Mechanical Lettering.
- Single Stroke lettering
A style of lettering used commonly by the students and professionals,
particularly in engineering and architecture in which letters, numbers and
other characters were drawn with single strokes. Characters written in
Gothic lettering has no serif and have the same thickness. It has two types
of lettering, this are the single stroke vertical lines whose letter are
written in 90 degrees and single stroke inclined lines whose lines are
written in 72 degrees.
- Freehand Lettering
This is a style of lettering commonly given at first part of learning drawing
and writing engineering lettering to help develop good writing skill in a
form of practice. This is where writing skill is being improved as it requires
that characters or lines should be written without using any drawing
materials but each characters must be drawn in correct shape or form
(Figure 9).
- Roman Lettering
Its lettering is composed of dense and skinny lines and put stress on
strokes, this accented strokes are called serif. This can also be written
vertically and inclined. See Figure 10.

- Mechanical lettering
A style of writing characters while using special drawing tools, scribbler,
and templates. It does not use guidelines to write characters. It is
commonly used in title blocks and notes on drawings, bordering
documents for distinct charts, updating tables, display diagrams, graphs,
signs and more. It also uses Pantograph, a tool for drawing which helps
draw an illustration exactly the same with any object shown in other
paper or photograph.
Drawing Instruments Essential for Technical Lettering and Their Uses
Before being able to achieve a quality output, lettering and drawing sometimes
requires using drawing instruments to keep the uniformity of the drawings and
characters. Different drawing Instruments has its own function and must be known
to accomplish precise presentation and efficiency of drafting thus, students must
comply with the guides or proper use of this equipment. The basic drawing
instruments that will be needed in drafting are T-square, triangles, drawing board,
compass, pencils, dividers, templates, tape, pencil sharpener, eraser, and special
pens (“Engineering Drawing and Graphics”, 1992). To further discuss this, the
following drawing instruments with their function are:
- T-square
The T-square is composed of two parts which are the head and blade, it
must be firmly connected together and if joined together, its shape
resembles with the alphabet letter “T”. This drawing tool is used for
creating horizontal lines and its head should be placed against a straight
side of the board. It could be either placed on the right or left working
edge of the drawing board, depend on the convenience of the user. In
addition, T-square is dependent with the board’s edge which might affect
one’s work if it produces unwanted or unexpected lines and this results
to inaccurate drawings. Its blade should be free from nicks to prevent
from producing grumpy lines. An example of T-square is shown in Figure
11.
- Triangles
There are two types of triangles that varies in sizes and degrees, one is
the 30 x 60 degrees triangle and the other one is a 45 degrees equiangular
triangle. It is made of transparent plastic which enables the user to see
the other lines in the draft. Its edges must be free from scratches. Its
functions is to support in constructing vertical lines supported by the T-
square for horizontal support.

Figure 12(30x60 triangle)

Figure 13(45 deg triangle)

- Drawing Board
It is a plane surface that provides an area fit for drafting lines or shapes
and supports the drafting sheet. Drawing board varies in sizes, the
suggested dimension for learners is 450mm x 600mm. Its physical
attributes is traditionally made from a quality wood. This is a drawing
instrument where the user could work freely with its draft; the sheet can
be placed in the board and tape it to prevent any destruction due of
slipping sheets. Here in Figure 14 is an example of Drawing board.

(insert figure 14)

- Compass
A tool that is composed of lengthening bar and pen or special attachment.
Compass is used for drawing different sizes of circles and arcs by
modifying to its anticipated radius. Compass can either be made of plastic
and metal.

(insert fig. 15)

- Pencils
Pencils used in engineering varies in width and shade of darkness produce
by the pencil. These drawing pencils have leads made of graphite and was
ordered in numbers and letters, categorizing it based on the degrees of
hardness. From 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B to 2B the degrees of hardness is light-
toned; those pencil that are 3H, 2H, H, F, HB, and B, it only produce
moderate firmness while pencils 4H, 5H, 6H, 7H, 8H, and 9H are the
pencils with hard lead.

(Insert fig 16 pic of 3 pencils)

- Dividers
Its physical characteristic is similar with compass but looking to its two
end points, it both ends with needle points. Dividers is a drawing
instrument that helps in transferring proportions or measurements and
used for providing divisions in lines to be divided into equal parts.

(insert Figure17

- Templates
There are several sets of templates that varies in shapes, alphabets and
numbers. It can be made out of metal or plastic. Templates is used for
haste drawing of same figures and symbols. Figure 18 is an example of
template.

(insert fig 18)

- Tape
Tape that is recommended for students learning in drawing, are masking
tape and magic tape. It is used to stick the drawing sheet to a drawing
board to not let it slip out of the table. Tape was now mostly used in
sticking sheets to the board to avoid damaging the wood, leaving marks
or scratches.

(fig 19)
 - Pencil Sharpener
Pencil sharpener is used to sharpen pencils to form a conical lead points.
Any excess graphite after refining pencils should be removed before using
it for drafting.

(insert fig. 20)

- Eraser
There are clay eraser, pen eraser, and pencil eraser. The common physical
attribute of an eraser is rubber-like. Hard rubber erase are used for
erasing heavy lines and soft rubber erasers are for light lines.

(insert figure 21)

- Technical Pens
It is an inking drawing instruments that differs in width of leads that
ranges from 0.10 millimeters to 2.0 millimeters. It also contains cartridges
that is useful for refilling leads. This technical pens are used in creating
lines. However, proper disposition and swiftness of hand in drafting to
avoid faulty lines.

(insert fig 22)

- Protractor
It is used frequently in measuring and constructing angles of line and
objects.

(insert fig 23)

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