Set the stamp down with even pres¬
sure, so that edge of the wood block that
is closest to you rests tightly against the
guide. If the left edge of the letter is
identical with the left edge of the block,
it should not be difficult to achieve the
right spacing. If you find blank spots
within the printed letter, fill them in
with a brush after the ink has dried.

Stencils

Cut your letters from stencilling paper,
which is varnished drawing paper, or
from see-through plastic sheets if you
plan to use them often. Keep the dis¬
tance between the baseline of the letters
and the bottom edge of the stencil equal
for all letters to make it easier to line
them up. Cut the side edges in a true
right angle to the bottom edge. Mark
the line spaces at the side of the paper,
draw the lines, and put the stencils in
place. It is easy to find the right letter
spacing if the stencils are clear material.
Hold the stencil tightly and stipple the
paint on with a stencil brush or spray it
with an airbrush. If you wish, you can
later fill in the areas within the stencilled
letters, but it is not necessary. Use thick
paint that adheres only to the outer ends
of the bristles.

Computer-Generated Lettering
Neither conventionally typed copy nor
ordinary printer output from a word-
processor will yield satisfying results
when enlarged. Laser proofs are better,
but still not intended for enlargement.
All of these methods of producing letter¬
ing will yield graininess and fuzzy (jag¬
ged) outlines. For good quality type,
with crisp contours, use professional im¬
aging (typesetting) equipment such as
the Linotronic 300 or Compugraphic
8600.

Drawing Large Letters
To achieve a precise rendition of large-
scale letters drawn by hand, put the en¬
tire alphabet on tracing paper and follow
the outlines with a tracing wheel. Trans¬
fer the letters either with the help of car¬
bon paper or a pounce bag. Later the
dots can be connected and the letters
filled in. Another method is to cut the
letters out and trace their outline.

Transfer Type

Several companies produce a wide vari¬
ety of transfer type — alphabets and other
type elements as well as symbols, grids,
tone, and areas of color — printed on a
thin film with a transparent protective
covering. These letters are pressure-sen¬
sitive and can be rubbed onto a smooth
surface, primarily paper, after which the
protective covering is removed. The re¬
sulting type has precisely defined outlines
and is ready for reproduction. Instructions
for use are included with the products.

Graphic Arts Tools and Procedures

Roughs and Finished Artwork

If you accept a commission for work that
will be printed, get all the relevant infor¬
mation about the format, number of col¬
ors, and the printing technique as soon
as possible, since the resulting restric¬
tions will influence the design process
from the very beginning.

You will have to make several sketches
— most clients expect at least three — but
great detail is not necessary at this stage.
Finished artwork is made for reproduc¬
tion. On it indicate the trim marks, so it
is clear where the image is to be posi-

196

tioned. If lines or areas of color or other
elements are to bleed —that is, extend
up to the edge of the poster, book jacket,
or label — draw them slightly beyond the
trim on your final artwork to avoid prob¬
lems should the trimming not be exact.
The color on the final art has to be com¬
pletely opaque and should not have any
shiny or transparent spots, which could
complicate the reproduction process and
require retouching. Drawing ink is there¬
fore not a good choice: tempera or
gouache colors are better. Use real
Chinese ink in bar form for small letters
and add a small amount of gouache color
to avoid transparency and glare. Too-
liberal use of opaque white for correc¬
tions will form raised edges when it dries
and cause shadows during photographic
reproduction, so the contours of letters
may appear fuzzy. Repairing such de¬
fects is time-consuming and expensive at
the printing stage, and a loss of quality
can not always be avoided.

Execute your design in black and
white even if it is to be printed in color
on white or any other color background.
If your design is to be in gray created by
the use of a printer's screen, indicate the
percentage screen to be used. If you
combine lettering with other elements
in full tone or other colors, you have to
be sure that the letters will "read," espe¬
cially if filters are used. For combined
line and tone projects, make a separate
rendering of the text in black and white
on an overlay, and be sure to include
registration marks on both parts.

Elements such as color gradations,
photographs, and other toned items (for
instance, the mark of a pencil or pastel
crayon) are usually reproduced with a
halftone screen. If the original is multi¬
colored and combined with lettering,
again two-part art in black and white
needs to be prepared. Use positive let¬
ters on multicolored backgrounds, be¬

cause the dots of the halftone screen
produce imprecise outlines for the letter
shapes and a superimposition of several
screens would aggravate the problem
considerably. Another difficulty of using
small, negative (reversed-out) type or
hairlines is caused by the fact that large
areas of halftone require a lot of ink,
which may fill in thin spaces that should
remain open. Such designs are best done
in offset printing.

Lettering for lithography needs sub¬
stantial elements: fat-face types are not
suitable, because their thin lines and
diagonals tend to look blurry.

Include exact information about color
with your finished artwork. Color sam¬
ples should be at least Уг inch (15 mil¬
limeters) square. Build your design on
standardized colors whenever possible.

A host of problems can confront a
graphic artist in daily practice. There are
many books that deal with preparing art
for reproduction and other practical
matters: among those that are recom¬
mended are Studio Tips by Bill Gray
(New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1976)
and Preparing Art for Printing by Ber¬
nard Stone and Arthur Eckstein (New
York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1983).

Sketching Type

Typesetting requires careful prepara¬
tion. Sketches or rough layouts should
represent the character of the chosen
type as accurately as possible; the di¬
mensions and color effects have to be
considered carefully. Type specimen
books are indispensable; many good
ones can be purchased, and many type¬
setters will supply their own. Unpleasant
surprises come from sloppy type sketches.
The more precise and professional the
roughs supplied, the more fruitful will
the cooperation between graphic artist
and typesetter be.

Rough sketches can be done in pencil.
Use hard ones for small type, medium-
hard pencils for mid-sized letters, and
soft pencils for large letters. Sometimes
the use of pen or brush and ink is neces¬
sary to represent the gray values of dif¬
ferent types adequately. Black ballpoint
pens are practical for mid-sized type,
with red or blue pens for emphasized
letters. Six- to twelve-point type can be
drawn with pencils of appropriate widths
in the required gray value.

Papers with treated surfaces are usu¬
ally impractical for sketching because
they show eraser marks, but a smooth
surface is essential. You will also need a
drawing board or similar support, a right
angle, compasses to transfer measure¬
ments, and, last but not least a type ruler
such as a Haberule, since typographic
sizes are the basis of all measurements.

Get a feeling for the character and
flow of the chosen type by copying it
onto tracing paper. Make pencil lines for
the baseline and x-height line, and draw
ascenders and descenders freehand, pre¬
serving the correct proportions. The spe¬
cial aspect of this sketching technique is
that line is added to line until the right
stroke width is achieved. It would not be
appropriate to draw the outlines of the
letters first and to fill them in later, be¬
cause this would create misleading ef¬
fects. Corrections would abound, and
the flow of the copy would be difficult to
achieve.

Lettering on Photographs

Superimpose letters on photographs
only if they constitute a design element,
and place them in areas of the picture
that have as little detail as possible, or
the text will be hard to read. Ideally, the
position of the letters will have been
planned before the picture is taken.

197