Lettering 101

posted February 28, 2011 / No Comments

By Uncle Tim Heitkotter

Aloha, lettering fans! It’s been a long time since the old “Lettering 101” days, but, we’re back and it’s so exciting to be a part of Tattoo Road Trip. My old pal Bob Baxter has honored me with resurrecting the column. This time, I want to give tips on lettering and also include a new alphabet (or font), each month. I’ll do my best to keep this fresh and interesting. My whole idea behind this column is to improve the quality of tattooing by artists that struggle with lettering. So, here we go!

I would like to start by talking about serifs. Serifs are the little extensions to most of the “block type” lettering we use every day. These parts of the letter are calligraphic in origin and signify the “thin” part of a “thick-and-thin” alphabet. They signify the “side stroke,” where the thick part of a letter is the “down stroke.” They are usually found at the top and bottom of a letter, and can be straight, wavy, curvy, plain or fancy. The only exception to this rule is where they are the opposite as in the Barnum- or Outlaw-style alphabets, where the thick-and-thin part of the letters are reversed.

Serifs can dress up a letter considerably, especially when they are extended at the beginning or end of a word or to fill in a gap. They can be used with almost any block-type alphabet, thick-and-thin or plain. We see them every day. They are right here, on the font I am using in my laptop. I like to use serifs to add an elegant touch to a typical Roman-style alphabet. This is the alphabet I am donating this month. I call it “Tim’s Roman.” This alphabet could be considered my daily driver, because I use it for logo designs, business cards and shop signs. It is very versatile and very sharp, if you dress up the inside. You can tweak it a bit, to suit your own tastes.

I would like to say that I don’t know everything there is to know about lettering, but I learn new stuff every day. I would also invite the readers to throw lettering questions at me, and we can explore together. Tattooing has been very generous to me and I am honored to give back in this way.