Free Illustrated Typography Glossary for Beginners

Discover typography and lettering terms such as stem, serif or spine and learn how to identify them in other languages

Unlike calligraphy, the practice of lettering does not follow predetermined patterns or rigorous standards. Although it follows, in some cases, a typographic basis, the act of drawing letters goes through a freer and more spontaneous creation.

To create your own letterings, therefore, it is necessary that you have knowledge of typographic terminology to understand where and how you can innovate to create new combinations. After all, the possibilities are endless for you to test and experiment by combining manual and digital techniques.

So that you can learn more about the subject and start practicing, Cyla Costa (@cylacosta), lettering artist, designer and illustrator, shares a small glossary of important terms in typography, including letter anatomy.

But first check out the differences between calligraphy, lettering and typography.

What is calligraphy?

This discipline consists of writing letters while paying attention to how the strokes or elements that form the letters are created, examining speed, direction, and sequence. Calligraphy is always done by hand, usually with pens, markers, or brushes.

Digital media (for example, a tablet) can be used as well, as long as the letter is hand-drawn. Each key part of a letter must be created using a single stroke. Making corrections is not permitted. This means that each letter is unique. The author of a calligraphy is the person who has drawn it.

What is lettering?

Unlike calligraphy, lettering consists of drawing letters or words, not writing them, and the author is allowed to make corrections. Another thing that makes lettering different from calligraphy is that the letters can either be created by hand or using vectors or other digital methods.

This means that not every letter will necessarily be the same, but they can be copied to give the whole set a more uniform appearance. The author of a lettering project will be the person who has drawn the letters, which is not the case when it comes to typography.

What is typography?

Typeface designers do not create unique letters or glyphs like calligraphers, nor do they draw words like lettering artists. A typeface is a unique set of characters that are united by stylistic choices.

Not only does a type designer design the letters, they also program them and establish a series of key parameters that are systematically repeated across that set of characters.

Illustrated Typography Glossary

In order for you to learn how to identify the elements of typography in other languages, making it easier to search for references, Cyla also provides the glossary in Spanish and Portuguese. Through it, you will learn, in a visual way, the main concepts of typography.

By clicking on the button below, a file in .pdf format will appear in the Downloads folder of your computer, with the Illustrated Typography Glossary, by Cyla Costa.

If you want to learn more, you can do so by signing up to Cyla’s course, Introduction to Custom Lettering.

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- Lettering, Calligraphy, and Typography: Do You Know the Differences?
- Creative Bullet Journal: Planning and Creativity, a course by Little Hannah
- Introduction to Illustrated Bullet Journaling, a course by Annie Weir