What is the difference between lettering and calligraphy

I like to also think of calligraphy as a discipline—akin to playing an instrument—whereby the practitioner has to develop the skill through constant practice and growth.

In my work, I do calligraphy and lettering, but also use type. Although I have formally studied typeface design, I have chosen to focus on being a student of calligraphy and also to create lettering by hand. I like to think of lettering as having a bit of a split personality.

For most lettering projects, if the individual alphabet characters were to be rearranged, it would most certainly look like amateur hour! On the other, it happens to be a string of letters that we read as words or phrases.

Traditional Western calligraphy typically uses the Latin alphabet. The styles that we still use today are based on different historical scripts and scribal hands, including Roman, Uncial, Italic, and Gothic. Over time, these base hands have been tweaked and restyled into numerous styles and modern calligraphic scripts.

Today, when we talk about calligraphy, it can refer to any of these historical hands as well as modern calligraphic styles. Calligraphy is traditionally practiced with oblique or straight dip pens, and suitable nib attachments, ink for dip pens, such as India ink, brushes and brush pens, or parallel pens.

The right tool for the job will depend on which script you want to practice. For example, a copperplate nib will make it very difficult for you to practice a Gothic style, but it will work well for Spencerian. Most calligraphy is learned by the rote practice of different styles and hands.

It relies on disciplined practice and muscle memory. Rather than allowing you to sketch the letters beforehand, calligraphy generally requires simple, smooth lines practiced in learned fluid strokes. While calligraphers do need to consider the overall composition of a finished piece, the composition isn't the main focus of most calligraphic practice.

When calligraphers do consider composition, it's mostly to shape the piece, plan how it fits together, consider spacing, and plan the appropriate flourishes. Hand-lettering has many things in common with calligraphy, but ultimately it distinguishes itself as a form of illustration. Rather than illustrating a character or a scene, though, artists who practice hand-lettering illustrate words and letters.

The practice of hand-lettering is a few hundreds of years old. These styles emerged with modern marketing, appearing on billboard text, and painted advertising on the sides of walls. Designs and graphics, such as logos and signs, often contain or begin as hand-lettering artwork. Hand-lettering has fewer rules than calligraphy for how artists use particular scripts or styles. Instead, hand-lettering artists have the freedom to write the shapes however they want.

In calligraphy or hand lettering, the letters will be written or drawn by hand every time whereas typography is mainly used in print or advertising and online.

Typography is neither hand lettering nor calligraphy. Typography is what you are looking at right now — the typeface on the screen. Typefaces and fonts are considered typography and are created by type designers whose main focus is to create type that no matter what the layout, the letter formations are the exact same.

Lettering and Calligraphy are NOT defined by the tools we are using to create the letters, BUT by the method, we are using to construct them. Lettering is drawing letters using the necessary number of revisions, modifications and usually born out of several thumb sketch ideas.

Calligraphy is writing letters in one stroke or the deconstruction of several strokes, there is no erasing or re-adjusting. I think the misconception comes because some people associate the pointed and flat pen with calligraphy, so when they see someone using a different tool, they automatically think that it has to something else, for example, lettering. Another reason that contributes to this confusion is the digitalization of the finished art pieces.

Hand lettering and calligraphy can be scanned into the computer, polished and digitized, often turned into a font or a typographic poster. Doing this can make the lettering or calligraphy appear to be a font when it really was created by hand.

The differences between hand lettering, calligraphy and typography may not seem that important to you. You want to know what you are talking about when you interact with other hand lettering artists, calligraphers, and type designers, especially if you are looking at getting into those fields since using these terms interchangeably can make you look unprofessional, and can seriously discredit your reputation as an artist.

I hope this post was helpful, and that you now have a better understanding of the differences between hand lettering, calligraphy, and typography. Do you have more questions? We all have our own tastes and preferences. Can i know about how much can i make by becoming a hand lettering artist?

Where can i earn the most? Will i be able to live a confortable life with it? Hey Sonal, im afraid it would take me way too long to answer these questions. In short — it depends. You can make a lot of money or nothing at all.

It depends on a variety of factors including skills, experience, the way you advertise your skills. Some make more by freelancing, others by selling products. I know many including myself who make a living drawing and writing letters, at the same time I know a lot who struggle to make it through the other side.

Thank you for the wonderful article. I am trying to start my Calligraphy journey and the articles out there are very confusing. This article puts things in perspective Especially note style vs font.

Im looking forward to reading your articles on Traditional calligraphy and exploring the different styles, tools.

Thank you so much for the kind comments. It is beautifully written. Full of knowledge. Had a question in mind: What are those fine differences that you have started to notice between calligraphy and hand lettering after practicing these art forms over the years now?

Thank you, Asmita! The more you look at things the more you start noticing all these small things the untrained eye cannot see. This was a very well written article. Thank you. I am an old some would say too old calligrapher who is very traditional.

One of the things that has made it more possible is the use of the computer to digitally edit the work with a graphics program. More like lettering, in a way. I can take a blackletter piece and edit the edges and points of the letters using a program like Krita to make it perfect down to the pixel! I can also change the color and saturation of each letter, adjust lines for leveling, move letters and words around to get spacing just the way I want, etc.

I can incorporate drawings into the piece as overlays, backgrounds, etc. If a client wants a specif Pantone color for the lettering, I can do it almost exactly and print it out on good Bristol board. Is that calligraphy? Digital art? There is so much to learn! Thank you for taking the time to explain so much to so many. How about mentioning digital art when you get around to it? Thank you so much for your comment, Gary! I really appreciate you taking the time. I have a whole section on iPad lettering and I am starting to focus more and more on the whole digital aspect.

Hey there!