The Easiest Way To Alter Your Lettering

The easiest way to alter your lettering is: simply change the height of each letter’s crossbar.

Instead of crossing your “A” the middle, try raising it to 1/3 of the way down from the top of the letter or dropping it to 2/3 of the way down. Even if you don’t do anything else to the letter (like thickening your down stroke or adding serifs), this small adjustment can change the personality of your letters.

So, here are my regular capital letters:

Here is what it looks like when I raise those crossbars:

(makes me think of a small, cute little critter or a high pitched voice)

And finally, what it looks like when I lower them:

(can’t you hear a slow, deep grandpa voice or a mopey character with a stuffy nose?)

Lettering is fun because there are endless combinations of designs and letter styles you can play with. And the fact that this small change can be used to add variety to any hand drawn font (even your normal capital handwriting) is what makes it so great.