Good
Lettering—
Some
Methods of
Construction
& Arrange¬
ment

AKMNVW

Oblique-stroke Letters —» as

XV*S\kvw4y5

ŸTvduccd by a Slanted Pen / »

■fmn the ESSENTIAL FORMS

Fig. 144.

Finishing-Strokes.—The pen naturally produces a
variety of finishing-strokes—“heads,” “feet,” serifs,
&c.—each type of which strongly characterises the
alphabet in which it is employed.

The main types (fig. 145) are—

(a) Hooks or beaks.

(b) Straight (or curved) strokes, thick or thin
according to the direction of the pen.

(c) Triangular “heads” (and “feet”), straight or
slanted, and more or less curved and sharpened.

(d) Thin finishing-curves, horizontal or oblique.

To give uniformity to the various letters of an
alphabet it is necessary to treat similar parts as
consistently as possible throughout (see No. 5, p.
203). And the remarkable way in which “heads”
impart a “family likeness” to letters closely resembles
the same phenomenon among human beings (see
pp. 288, 218).

If we consider the four types of serif, as applicable
to straight-реп writing, we find—

208

(a) Hooks or Beaks Suitable only for certain

(d) Thin Finishing- parts of certain letters

Curves (and for »»formal writ¬

ing)-

(b) Straight (or Curved) \ Informal (or Orna-

THIN Strokes Ì mental).

Ì Formal and capable of
imparting great ele¬
gance and finish.

For a formal, straight-pen writing, therefore, we
may assume that a form of triangular head is, on

_1а.ШУ Me.

"+ "+

Stnwriit-pm -forms of serifs 6¿\
Squcft ends -f-.

Slanted-pen forms of serifs 8¿j
oblique, ends к

Fig. 145.

the whole, the most suitable, while some of the
letters may be allowed to end naturally in finishing
hooks and curves.

Good
Lettering—
Some
Methods of
Construction
& Arrange¬
ment

209