Pen-Lettering History

Carl Shank • July 17, 2025

Pen-drawn lettering lies at the heart of Western typographic tradition. From Roman capitals to digital script fonts, its influence persists in the balance, rhythm, and grace of letterforms—whether carved in stone, printed in books, or drawn by hand on a modern tablet.


The history of pen-drawn lettering in typography is deeply intertwined with the broader evolution of writing, calligraphy, and type design. It represents a key bridge between handwritten traditions and mechanical or digital type. Key characteristics of Pen-Drawn Lettering include stroke contrast, from broad-nib or pointed-pen techniques, fluid cures and terminals, which are naturally shaped by hand movement, and the human touch of imperfections, variation and expression.


Although allied with Calligraphy, pen-lettering has distinct differences. Calligraphy illustrates the art of writing with specific strokes, while pen-lettering focuses on the art of drawing letters. Calligraphy shows writing in one continuous flow while in pen-lettering letters are stylized individually. Calligraphy relies on pressure for thick/thin strokes while pen-lettering is drawn and shaded manually. It is harder to fix mistakes in calligraphy. Thus, the word "typography" in calligraphy is written in one flowing motion, using a brush pen, adjusting pressure to get thick and thin lines. In pen-lettering the word "typography" is done by drawing each letter as a mini-illustration, perhaps outlining it and adding embellishments. However, both calligraphy and pen-lettering share similar histories and are at least partners in typography.


The plates below give an overall history of pen-lettering. Enjoy!


SOURCES

ChatGPT on "calligraphy" and "pen lettering"

https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-32497.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston_(typeface))

 P22 Type Foundry  and MyFonts.com for typeface descriptions

https://www.calligraphersguild.org/sheila-waters

Настина Сказка - мир макраме мастера vk.com/nastinaskazka on Pinterest

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/3588874697522020/visual-search/?cropSource=5&surfaceType=flashlight&rs=deep_linking lettering on Pinterest

http://www.lettercult.com/archives/2853 featuring David Croy on Pinterest

H. Carl Shank, Typography Through the Years, Lulu Press, 2024

Lewis F. Day, Alphabets Old and New, London, 1910.

Maggie Patton, “The Printer’s Mark: That Curious Penguin on the Spine of Your Favorite Paperback Isn’t There Just for Decoration,” Openbook, Autumn 2022.

William Roberts, The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Printers’ Marks, June 1, 2008, Ebook #25663, from inages made available by The Internet Archive.

Charles Ayers Faust, Faust's 75 New Alphabets, C.W. Braithewait Co., 1912





Successful Layout & Design

English Penman Calligraphic Fonts

By Carl Shank • July 13, 2026
George Bickham the Elder (b. 1684) was one of the most influential English engravers, calligraphers, and writing masters of the eighteenth century. Although he was a capable print engraver, his lasting significance lies in his role in preserving and popularizing English Round Hand (later known as Copperplate script) through beautifully engraved writing manuals. His work shaped business handwriting, penmanship education, typography, and ornamental lettering for generations. He trained as both a writing master and an engraver, two professions that were closely linked before the advent of modern printing. Rather than merely copying handwriting, he engraved elaborate penmanship examples onto copper plates, allowing thousands of identical, highly detailed specimens to be printed. He became renowned for his extraordinary ability to translate handwritten originals directly onto copper plates with exceptional fidelity, a skill admired by his contemporaries.

Compositors & Type: Origin and Use of “Uppercase” and “Lowercase”

By Carl Shank • June 13, 2026
Compositors & Type: Origin and Use of “Uppercase” and “Lowercase” Carl Shank, CARE Typography Most everyone knows what “uppercase” and “lowercase” letters are. They refer, of course, to our “capital” letters and our “regular” small print. But not many know why or how they came to be known by such terminology. The answer is found in the history and development of typography and printing. “Case” here doesn’t refer to “circumstance” or “condition.” It refers to the wooden trays used to store metal letters, the top case for capital letters (“uppercase”) and the lower case for small letters. Each tray was divided into compartments to hold the type. The lower case also held the punctuation marks and other pieces of type, like “spacers.” The type case was a shallow wooden tray divided into compartments of various sizes. There were about thirty styles of type cases, and some of these were made in different sizes.[1] The most common, or standard, size was 32¼ by 16 inches, outside dimensions, and ⅛ inches deep, inside. One of three traditional plans or schemes for such type cases involved (1) all characters in one case; (2) capitals, small capitals and a few other characters in one case; or (3) the small letters, figures, points, spaces and quads in another case. The two latter cases formed a pair and would nearly always be used together.(See Images) Hand compositors (or “swifts”) would take individual letters, spaces and punctuation marks or other characters from the type case and place them in what was called a composing “stick” in such a manner that when the type characters are properly assembled, they form words, sentences and paragraphs. The work of the press room compositor was divided into two fundamental operations — the “setting” of type and the “unsetting” of type. The former was called composition and the latter, distribution. A visual example of such typesetting can be seen in some of the episodes of The Waltons, an American historical dramatelevision series about a family in rural western Virginia in the Appalachian/Blue Ridge mountains chain, during the economic hardships and mass unemployment of the Great Depression in the 1930s and the subsequent United State home front during World War II in the 1940s. The series aired from 1972 to 1981. John-Boy, a leading character of the series, opened a print shop in a shed by the family home with an old-fashioned mechanical printer that required setting cold metal type from a type case. His brother was the compositor while John-Boy ran the printing machine.
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