Concept in Definition ABC

With the emergence of new technologies, traditional handwriting has lost its prominence in everyday life. Despite this, there is an attempt to recover this custom and lettering is a new fashion that aims to rescue from oblivion the art of to write by hand.

Lettering and calligraphy

Calligraphy is the art of writing by hand, either with a pen, marker or brush. Instead, lettering is the art of hand-drawing letters with an aesthetic sense. Therefore, calligraphy and lettering are similar and closely related activities, but not exactly the same. Calligraphy is a writing technique that seeks the beauty of written text. On the other hand, lettering is a more artistic activity and in it the composition and harmony of the letters acquires great importance.

Valuable Considerations

To get started in the He drew artistic letters it is advisable to start practicing in a notebook with soft sheets. It is advisable to use felt-tip pens and with some flexibility, which allows a better design Of letters.

Fans of this artistic activity usually practice with watercolors and brushes, with black paper and metallic colored letters or with pens to make the so-called false lettering (also called faux lettering and which consists of imitating the thick and thin lines of calligraphy modern).

An important aspect in this technique is the manual control of the pressure that is exerted at the time of writing.

If the pressure is strong, the lines are thick and if the pressure is light, the lines are thin.

To exercise the skill manual lettering fans have a habit of training by making alphabets or drawing individual letters and repeating them successively. Another way to practice technique is to use lined paper.

Anyone who practices lettering or is professionally engaged in this activity should have a deep understanding of typography and its design techniques, especially tracking and kerning.

Graffiti artists and tattoo artists

Both some and others need to know the techniques of lettering so that their compositions have Balance and harmony. Normally the work carried out is of the artisan type, but it is possible to use some resources own of the computing.

In addition to tattooing and the world of graffiti, lettering is an activity with a wide range of applications: t-shirt design, book illustration or typographic design for advertising and marketing.

Photos: Fotolia - Pakhnyushchyy / bst2012