Technical lettering is the process of forming letters, numerals, and other characters in technical

drawing. It is used to describe, or provide detailed specifications for, an object. With the goals
of legibility and uniformity, styles are standardized and lettering ability has little relationship to normal
writing ability. Engineering drawings use a Gothic sans-serif script, formed by a series of short
strokes. Lower case letters are rare in most drawings of machines.
Methods of forming letters
1. Freehand lettering is done without the assistance of tools. To regulate lettering height,
commonly 3 mm, guidelines are drawn.
2. Mechanical lettering is done using tools such as lettering guides, templates, or using a small
mechanical pantograph referred to by the Keuffel and Esser trademark "Leroy"
3. Modern drawings are lettered with computer-aided design software.
Freehand lettering
The letters to be drawn, though freehanded, should be stable and graceful. In some cases stability is
impossible; for example, P and F are unavoidably top-heavy. In other cases the stability and grace of
the letters may be maintained either by drawing the lower parts of the letters like B,E etc. wider than
the upper parts, or by drawing the horizontal line at the center of these letters just above their
geometric axis. (Exception: In case of the letter A, the horizontal member is drawn below the
geometric center, to maintain equality of areas below and above the center line. If a horizontal line is
drawn exactly at the center, then the difference in the areas of the triangle above the line and the
trapezium below the line is much larger. This creates an unusual effect to our eyes.)
Emphasis should be on the overall beauty of a word, rather than individual letters.
Most freehand lettering is done in a "gothic" style, i.e., with a constant line thickness; either "straight
gothic", with vertical strokes perpendicular to the baseline, or "inclined gothic", with vertical strokes
at about 75.

Mechanical lettering
Mechanical lettering is sometimes done using a pantograph, a device consisting of four bars which
are pinned to each other to form a parallelogram. The links can pivot about these pins. The
lowermost link of the parallelogram is fixed to two rigid supports. One vertical link at one end is
connected to a profile tracer, which traces the profile of the letter to be drawn, and the second
vertical link and the other horizontal link are jointly connected to a pencil that draws the exact shape
of the profile traced.

Engineering Lettering
Lettering is an essential element in both traditional drawing and CAD drawing. Graphic
communication is often not enough to completely describe an object. Lettered text is often necessary
to provide detailed specifications about the drawn object. And there are a number of formal rules that
apply to the placement of lettering. Commercial Gothic, also called sans-serif Gothic, is the lettering
style of most interest to engineers. It is plain and legible. While admittedly not as beautiful as many
other styles, sans-serif letters are comparatively easy to make. They may be drawn in outline and
then filled in. C.W. Reinhardt, formerly chief draftsman for Engineering News, developed alphabets
of capital and lowercase inclined and vertical letters, based on the old Gothic letters. For each letter,
he worked out a systematic series of strokes. Reinhardts development of single-stroke letters was
the first step toward standardization of technical lettering. In 1935, the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) suggested letter forms that are now generally considered as standard .Lettering is
freehand drawing and not writing. Therefore, the six fundamental strokes and their direction for
freehand drawing are basic to lettering. The horizontal lines are drawn to the right and all vertical
inclined, and curved strokes are drawn downward. Either vertical or inclined letters maybe used, but
only one style should appear on any one drawing. Vertical letters are perhaps slightly more legible
than inclined letters, but they are more difficult to execute. Both vertical and inclined letters are
standard, and the engineer or drafter may be called on to use either. Background areas between
letters and words should appear approximately equal, and words should be clearly separated by a
space equal to the height of the lettering. Only when special emphasis is necessary should the
lettering be underlined. Also, it is not desirable to vary the size of the lettering according to the size
of the drawing except when a drawing is to be reduced in reproduction. To meet design or space
requirements, letters may be narrower and spaced closer together. In this case, they are called
compressed or condensed letters. If the letters are wider than normal, they are referred to as
extended letters. Letters also vary as to thickness of the stems or strokes. Letters having very thin
stems are called lightface, while those having heavy stems are called boldface. In any style of
lettering, uniformity is essential. Uniformity in height, proportion, inclination, strength of lines, spacing
of letters, and spacing of words ensures a pleasing appearance. Uniformity in spacing of letters is a
matter of equalizing spaces by eye. The background areas between letters, not the distances
between them, should be approximately equal. Space words well apart, but space letters closely
within words. Make the spaces between words approximately equal to a capital O. Uniformity in
height and inclination is promoted by the use of light guide lines. As guide in lettering, extremely light
horizontal lines are necessary to regulate the height of letters. In addition, light vertical or inclined
lines are needed to keep the letters uniformly vertical or inclined. A simple method of spacing
horizontal guidelines is to use a scale or bow dividers. Another convenient instrument for drawing
guide lines for lettering, dimension figures and section lines is the lettering triangle. Uniformity in
strength of lines can only be obtained by the skilled use of properly selected pencils and pens. Either
pencils or pens can be used in lettering. Pencil letters are best made with a medium-soft lead with a
conical point or with a suitable thin-lead mechanical pencil. Pencil lettering should be executed with
a fairly soft pencil such as an For H for ordinary paper. The choice of a pen for lettering, in contrast,
is determined by the size and style of the letters, the thickness of stroke desired, and the personal
preference of the drafter. Good lettering involves artistic design, in which the white and black areas
are carefully balanced to produce a pleasing effect. Letters are designed to look well, and some
allowances must be made for errors in perception. If the upper portions of certain letters and
numerals are equal in width to the lower portions, the characters appear too-heavy. To correct this,
the upper portions are reduced in size where possible, there by producing the effect of stability and a

more pleasing appearance. On working drawings, vertical capital letters are commonly made %
(3.22 mm) high, with the space between lines of lettering from three fifths to the full height of the
letters. For inclined capital letters, the spacing of horizontal guidelines is the same as for vertical
capital lettering. The ANSI-recommended slop e of 2 in 5 (or 68.2 with horizontal) may be
established by drawing a slope triangle and drawing the guide lines at random with the T-square
and triangle. When large and small capitals are used in combination, the small capitals should be
three fifths to two thirds as high as the large capitals. On the other hand, lowercase letter shave four
horizontal guide lines, called the cap line, waist line, base line and drop line. Strokes of letters that
extend up to the cap line are called ascenders and those that extend down to the drop line,
descenders. In spacing horizontal guide lines, the ratio of the distance between the base and waist
lines with the distance between the base and cap line may vary from 2:3 or 3:5. The order and
direction of strokes and the proportion of inclined lowercase letters are the same as those of vertical
lowercase letters. Complete guide lines should be drawn for whole numbers and fractions, especially
for beginners. Fractions are twice the height of the corresponding whole numbers. Make the
numerator and the denominator each about three fourths as high as the whole number to allow
ample clear space between them and the fraction bar. For dimensioning, the most commonly used
height for whole numbers is % (3.22 mm), and for fractions % (6.4 mm). Today, various forms of
press-on lettering and special lettering devices are available. In addition, all computer-aided drafting
systems have the capability to produce letters of different heights and styles and to make changes
as required. In whatever way the lettering is applied to the drawing and whatever styles of lettering is
used, the lettering must meet the requirements for legibility and microfilm reproduction. It should be
remembered that good lettering is always accomplished by conscious effort, though good muscular
coordination is of great assistance. There are three necessary aspects of learning to letter
knowledge of the proportions and forms of letters and the order of strokes, knowledge of
composition or spacing, and persistent practice with continuous effort to improve.