12 inspirational hand lettering books

At the start of the year I made the declaration that 2017 would be the year I’d finally try hand lettering. When I was a kid I’d drag out the old Letraset book and I would practice tracing the different fonts. The second job I had after leaving school was at a sign shop. As a sign designer I worked with hundreds of fonts and I learned a bunch about formatting and white space and how different fonts communicate messages differently. It was at this job that I developed a huge crush on old vintage signs. I so wanted to be able to do freehand work but I just didn’t have the confidence to try. Until now.

Thankfully we are blessed with an internet full of helpful tutorials and practice sheets to help novice hand letterers like me. I’ve also found inspiration in a couple of books about hand lettering. Want to know my favourites?


1. The Ultimate Brush Lettering Guide: A Complete Step-by-Step Creative Workbook to Jump Start Modern Calligraphy Skills – Peggy Dean

2. In Progress: See Inside a Lettering Artist’s Sketchbook and Process, from Pencil to Vector – Jessica Hische

3. Creative Lettering and Beyond: Inspiring tips, techniques, and ideas for hand lettering your way to beautiful works of art – Gabri Joy Kirkendall, Laura Lavender, Julie Manwaring, Shauna Lynn Panczyszyn

4. Hand Lettering 101: An Introduction to the Art of Creative Lettering – Chalkfulloflove

5. Hand-Lettering (An Interactive Guide to the Art of Drawing Letters) – Megan Wells

6. Hand-Lettering for Everyone: A Creative Workbook – Cristina Vanko

7. Little Book of Hand Lettering – Emily Gregory

8. The Joy of Lettering: A creative exploration of contemporary hand lettering, typography & illustrated typeface – Gabri Joy Kirkendall, Jaclyn Escalera

9. Adventures in Lettering – Dawn Nicole Warnaar

10. Hand Lettering: Creative Alphabets for Any Occasion – Thy Doan

11. Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design’s Golden Age – Steven Heller, Louise Fili

12. Hand-Lettering Ledger: A Practical Guide to Creating Serif, Script, Illustrated, Ornate, and Other Totally Original Hand-Drawn Styles – Mary Kate McDevitt

12 free scripty calligraphy fonts

What do you think of calligraphy? I’ve long been fascinated by it and I’ve tried my hand at it many times. The end result is generally very depressing and awkward but that only levels up my admiration of artists who make it look effortless. If you’re like me and you have no calligraphic bones in your body you’ll love this list of free (for personal use) calligraphy fonts. Do you have a fave that I haven’t included? Leave me a comment and let me know.

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8 springtime fonts

I am a font addict. One of the first jobs that I had after high school was in a sign shop. While I wasn’t the arty kind of sign writer – I worked with a computer rather than a paint brush – I did get to know that font choice plays a big role in the success of a sign. I became font obsessed and over the last twenty years I’ve been adding to my font stash. As it’s spring down under I thought I’d put together a quick list of my favourite spring’ish fonts. Do you have any favourite fonts you’d like to share?

font_love

Money Penny, Indigo Blue, Bellwethers, Laurel, Ashlyn, Hello Beautiful, Roselina Script, Foxglow.