Free-Hand Lettering: Being a Treatise on Plain Lettering from the Practical Standpoint, for Use in Engineering Schools and Colleges
A 1903 textbook by Victor T. Wilson, published by John Wiley & Sons for engineering schools, teaching plain hand lettering for working drawings, maps and titles.
What it is
A 1903 textbook by Victor T. Wilson, published by John Wiley & Sons for engineering schools, teaching plain hand lettering for working drawings, maps and titles. Its preface rejects copying alphabets: letters have no fixed forms, so every line of lettering is design, judged by the eye rather than by measurement. Chapter I analyses Roman and Gothic (sans serif) capitals, small letters and numerals, and builds each letter in stages, proportion first and detail last. Chapter II treats spacing as equal-looking areas between letters, not equal distances. Later chapters cover pens, inks and single-stroke offhand Gothic; laying out titles with a simple overall shape and graded prominence of lines; lettering for maps, architects, patent drawings and advertising; the limits past which a letter stops being legible; and mechanical aids, which Wilson discourages. Twenty-three plates carry the examples.
Why read it now
The book is written for draftsmen, but its core ideas are the working rules of any ad layout. Optical spacing, judged by equal-looking areas rather than equal gaps, is still how designers set display lines. The advice on titles transfers directly to headlines: give the group of lines a simple outer shape, let one line lead without dwarfing the rest, and finish the whole at one level of care. Wilson's remark that the best lettering of his day was on billboards and streetcars, and that most of it used very plain letters, fits later signage research that favours simple forms for fast reading at a distance. His limits on letter shape, where a squared A or an overlapping C stops reading as that letter, apply to logos and to stylised Arabic display lettering, which often trades legibility for ornament. What has dated: pens, inks, ruling tools and the assumption that lettering is done by hand. Use: when a headline feels weak, adjust spacing, width and weight before adding size or ornament; he shows that spacing alone changes prominence.
Passages worth keeping
Erroneous conceptions have grown out of the idea that letters are standard, that they are rigidly fixed in their forms; the truth is there are no really fixed forms.
الخطأ الشائع أن للحروف أشكالًا ثابتة مقررة، والحقيقة أن كل حرف يحتمل التنويع، ولذلك فكل كتابة للحروف عمل تصميم.
There are no more striking instances of good lettering than are to be found on the bill-board, street-car and other advertising.
أفضل أمثلة الحروف الجيدة موجودة في الإعلانات على اللوحات وعربات الترام، لأنها تحتاج إلى البساطة والوضوح أكثر من غيرها.
It must be remembered that increase of spacing increases prominence of words
توسيع المسافات بين الحروف يجعل الكلمة أبرز، فالبروز لا يأتي من حجم الخط وحده.
The chief feature in the title should be brought out with sufficient prominence to catch the eye at a glance but it should not be so large or prominent as to entirely dwarf everything else.
أهم عنصر في العنوان يجب أن يلفت النظر من أول لحظة، لكن دون أن يكبر حتى يلغي حضور بقية الأسطر.
the fact that the bulk of it is composed of very plain letters is a testimonial to their value
أن أغلب حروف الإعلانات بسيطة جدًا رغم الحرية الواسعة المتاحة للمصمم دليل على قيمة البساطة.
What it teaches best
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