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Old 10-05-2008, 12:47 PM
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Miss Ruth Miss Ruth is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Londonium, England
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Default Roman Lettering

The Subject: Roman Lettering
The Music: Film Soundtracks - Kill Bill, The Royal Tenenbaums, Romeo and Juliet (Baz Lurman version)
The Drink: Water - re-hydrating after all that Coffee
The Weather: A Dark and Stormy night
The Central Heating: ON

Roman
The basis of all Roman type is founded on this Trajan Column base. Its a classic!


Here is another Roman font very similar to the one above.



Marking out Roman Lettering


The following can be applied generally to all lettering
Count the number of letters to be engraved remembering to count spaces as well.
I am engraving R.C. Anthony, which equals 10 units. I don’t count full stops but just keep in mind that there needs to be a bit of extra space for them.

Divide the number in half = 5
So I need roughly 5 letters on each side of the halfway mark so that everything is centred. Its only a rough guess as 'I' takes up less space than 'O' for example.

Mark out the height
Mark a top and bottom line for the letter heights
I am using title case, so the Initials are slightly bigger than the other letters. Mark this line too.



Proportions
One can read countless books and articles on lettering proportions. My best advice is to just look at lettering.

Obsessively.

The next step is to practice drawing it. This is what engravers do anyway.
Observe, draw what you see, engrave. Lettering is no different, just perhaps a little less forgiving.

By doing this it somehow becomes embedded in the psyche after a time and then it becomes just as natural as drawing a scroll.

It's a matter of personal taste, but I like my Romans short and fat.


Drawing the letters


Draw only what is necessary. As the height lines are all drawn in there is no need to draw the ‘arms’ of the letters.


Draw the down strokes or ‘stems’ of the letter. To keep the drawing clean and legible only draw one line (as in the second picture down)



For the most part the drawn line relates to the outside of the stem. An exception to this, for example, is T or I where it marks the middle of the stem.


So this is what my drawing for the Roman Lettering looks like


Usefull Links
Type anatomy
http://www.fonts.com/aboutfonts/arti...ti/anatomy.htm
http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.ed...cs/default.htm

GLOSSARY
English:Full stop American: Period

Arms - Unattached horizontal stroke (as in F or E) The sloping stroke in the letter K would also be considered an arm.

Stem – A straight vertical stroke (or the main straight diagonal stroke in a letter which has no verticals).
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