Fig. 4Fig. 5
Mechanical equality and mechanical spacing are foreign to correct lettering. The letters of figure 4 demonstrate this. All the letters in that case are equal in width and are spaced equally apart. The trouble is obvious. Hence, the necessity of assigning different and specific widths to all letters. Figure 5 shows the same letters as in figure 4, but with their proper relative widths and spacing apart. They present, therefore, a much more satisfactory appearance. The widths assigned to the different letters are not a matter of guess-work or the product of the mind of any one person, but are the result of many years of experiment on the part of a great many individuals. There is a reason for every particular proportion of each letter which usually becomes obvious when the letter is made contrary to the correct proportion.
A very important rule in lettering which is commonly violated by the inexperienced is as follows:
RULE 2. In the letters, V, A, N, M, W, Y, K, X, and U, that is, the letters which offer a choice of direction in the light and heavy strokes, are shaded on the "down" stroke, or the stroke which slants from upper left to the lower right.
The heavy side of the "U" is easily remembered as it was originally made like the "V," (the present "W" being a "double U" of the old style "U"), so that it is shaded on the same side as the "V."
This rule applies not only to all styles of Roman Letters, but to all standard "shaded" letters. There is but a single case in this style in which a heavy stroke slants from upper right to the lower left. It is the "Z"; but as it offers no "choice" as to which stroke is shaded, it does not come under the rule just given.
Other rules will be formulated as we proceed with the study of the individual letters. The style of lettering first to be taken up will be the "ROMAN" letters, as that is the basic style.
We will first observe several short-cut methods which can be used to advantage in laying out letters, etc., by the use of the two triangles.
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