The Essentials of Lettering: A Manual for Students and Designers
The third edition, 1912, of a lettering textbook by two Ohio State University teachers, published by McGraw-Hill.
What it is
The third edition, 1912, of a lettering textbook by two Ohio State University teachers, published by McGraw-Hill. The preface sets the thesis: engineers who letter drawings and artists who letter designs share one foundation, because lettering is design, not mechanical drawing. Chapter I sketches the alphabet from the Trajan Column through uncial, Caroline minuscule and Gothic to the modern Roman. Chapter II builds letters: proportions, optical corrections such as drawing E, S and 3 smaller at the top and letting round letters overshoot the guide lines, then the Roman, Commercial Gothic and single-stroke styles. Chapter III spaces letters by equal areas of white, not equal distances, and lays out title blocks for drawings and maps. Later chapters match styles to jobs, with upright gothic only for railway signs, weigh period, purpose and material in design, set rules for monograms and trademarks, and explain drawing for zinc etching and half-tone.
Why read it now
The core of the book still holds and is still taught. Space letters by the white area between them, not by equal gaps; correct for optical illusions; and choose the style for the job, with plain sans serif for signs, because legibility at a distance comes first. The three tests of period, purpose and material work for any identity decision, and the monogram chapter reads like a trademark brief: one style only, the key letter dominant, the letters readable in the right order, no accidental extra letter formed by the overlap, and a commercial mark that reads easily where a private one may be ornate. The dismissal of shaded, three-dimensional and novelty letters as bad is a matter of taste, and advertising has used such letters well since. The zinc-etching chapter is obsolete, and the history is brief by the authors' own choice. Use: when a designer presents a logo or monogram, check it against those rules and at small size before arguing about taste, and keep the indexed clipping file the last chapter recommends, which is a swipe file under another name.
Passages worth keeping
Let it be emphasized here at the outset that lettering is not mechanical drawing, but is design, based on accepted forms and developed freehand.
رسم الحروف ليس عملًا آليًا بالمسطرة، بل هو تصميم يقوم على أشكال مستقرة ويُنفَّذ باليد والعين.
In spacing letters in words uniformity of effect is gained not by spacing the letters at equal distances apart, but so that the areas of white space between the letters are approximately equal.
الكلمة تبدو متوازنة حين تتقارب مساحات البياض بين حروفها، لا حين تتساوى المسافات بالقياس.
Excessive ornamentation is an acknowledgment of weakness.
كثرة الزخرفة في العلامة اعتراف بضعف التصميم، فالقوة في البساطة ونقاء الخط.
A trademark or commercial device must read easily, while a private mark may be decipherable with difficulty but both must be decorative, and hence good design.
العلامة التجارية يجب أن تُقرأ بسهولة، أما العلامة الشخصية فيجوز أن تكون صعبة القراءة، لكن كلتيهما يجب أن تكون جميلة التصميم.
An indexed clipping file of good work in lettering and design should be started, and the habit of studying critically the work found in the magazines and other artistic publications cultivated.
ابدأ أرشيفًا مفهرسًا لما يعجبك من أعمال الحروف والتصميم، وتعوّد أن تدرس ما تراه في المجلات بعين ناقدة.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
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