Lettering Gear Guide 2015
An updated guide to some of the best tools for lettering today, and examples of them in action
Almost two years ago, I wrote about some of my favorite lettering tools, and some fun things to play with when you’re just getting started in lettering. Really, these are great tools for anyone, at any level, as I still regularly use most of them to this day.
I do have several other tools that I use on a regular basis these days, so I figured I’d put a new guide together that I can point people to.
All of these images are linked, and clicking on them will take you to where you can purchase that tool for yourself if you want to try it (disclosure: many are Amazon Affiliate links).
For a quick, easy way to find most of these, plus some other non-lettering things I like that people ask me about often, I keep a “Things” page on my personal site with links to all that, as well.
Lead Holders
Probably the single thing I use more than anything else in my arsenal is a Staedtler 2mm lead holder. I’ve never found a standard pencil sharpener that I’ve been fully happy with. Either they don’t get things as sharp as I like, or there’s too much room for error in using them. This leads to very inconsistent results in the point, which should always be very sharp for the best use in lettering. With a lead holder, paired with a proper lead pointer (to follow), you can get a perfectly consistent, needle-sharp point that is unmatchable with traditional wooden pencils.
You can purchase leads in all different hardnesses (also to follow) to completely replace your entire pencil collection.
Some examples of the lead holder in use:
Lead Pointer
Most good lead holders include a small sharpening mechanism in the cap on the opposite end, but honestly, you should only use it in extreme emergencies, and only after you fail at gnawing it to a point with your teeth. To get a truly proper point, you’re going to need a lead pointer.
These come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but probably the most convenient and effective option is a rotary tub style pointer like this one. There are guides to get your lead extended to the perfect length for the exact point you’re looking for. Then, you insert the entire end of the holder into the hole, and rotate it with the top of the tub to move the lead around the sharpener inside. Some times it’s a rough sandpaper-like surface, and others, it’s a circular blade. Either way, you’re left with that needle-sharp point every single time.
2mm Leads
One of the best things about using a lead holder is that it’s actually very affordable. Once you’ve purchased a holder or two, you can buy packs of lead refills in any hardness you desire. Personally, I keep one holder stocked with a nice hard 2H lead for outlining and crisp sketching, and another with a slightly softer H lead for heavier shading and filling.
Perhaps the best part, is that with the Staedtler refills at least, they come with a replacement cap that’s the same color as the sticker on the lead case. That way, you can tell all your otherwise identical blue holders apart. So for instance, this one gave me an orange cap, and you can see the red one from my 2H refills in the image of my holder at the beginning of this article.
Ames Lettering Guide
I first discovered this little gem by complete accident. Early on, when I still had some hope left for the ability to enter in “lettering” as a search term on an art supply website and get any remotely useful results outside of vinyl letter stickers, I did find one thing that proved to be a helpful tool — the Ames Lettering Guide.
This is a wonderful tool for quickly laying down simple guide lines for calligraphy and lettering. You just grab a ruler, place the lettering guide against it, stick the tip of your pencil into one of the holes, and then slide it across your ruler. Then, you can repeat at whatever increments you like, depending on how far apart your lines need to be for the size you’re trying to work at. Inside the circle, you can dial in a very technical set of guide lines, perfectly suited for designers/calligraphers looking for specific line heights, spacing, etc.
For general, quick use, though, the evenly spaced holes on the left side are great.
Eraser Sheild
When I first found this dude, I was ecstatic. Ninety percent of the eraser shields you find in stores are the exact same shape and look and are pretty standard. They’re made of a thin, solid aluminum, and the cutouts are all the same. This guy, however, has tiny holes throughout the areas that are typically solid, so you can see your work ever-so-slightly through the shield.
Eraser shields, if you too aren’t familiar, are typically used for technical drawing, often found in drafting kits. But guys, these are great for lettering! If you accidentally smudge into the counter of a letter, make an upstroke a bit too heavy, whatever. This bad boy has all the cutouts you need for precision erasing and cleanup. Plus, they’re like a dollar, so do check these out.
Eraser Holder
When you’re working with high-detail stuff like lettering, using a big rectangular eraser can be less than optimal for cleaning up tight spaces without ruining your hard work. An eraser holder like this one can help a lot.
This is the Tombow Mono Zero eraser, with a 2.3mm tip. Having something that you can control in the same way as a pencil makes precision cleanup much easier.
Pentel Color Brush
When I’m not laying graphite down to rough out ideas for a lettering project, you might catch me with my trusty Color Brush from Pentel. Guys, this thing is amazing. As opposed to brush pens (more on that in a minute), the Color Brush has an actual synthetic-bristle brush tip, fed with ink from the body of the brush.
This thing is incredibly helpful for quickly concepting brush-script style logos and letterforms. The best part is that you can really saturate the brush with a ton of ink, and not only will it not bleed through your paper, but it lasts forever.
Some examples of the Color Brush in use:
Tombow Dual Brush
I’m also a huge fan of the brush pens from Tombow. I’ve been using the Dual Brush model that has a large soft-point on one end and a finer firm tip on the other. No bristles on these, but the felt tips give by far the best control and versatility of any brush pen I’ve ever used. And like the Color Brush, there’s virtually no bleed, unlike a good majority of other comparable pens on the market.
The only downside to these pens is their lifespan. They wear out rather quickly with regular use, but they’re great while they last. Of course, a worn out brush pen can often produce some of the most interesting results, so don’t pitch them too quickly.
Some examples of the Dual Brush in use:
Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens
The Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens have been some of my favorites for quite a while. While many of the larger brush pens are great for quicker, more gestural ink work, these smaller, rubber-tipped brush pens are amazing for finer, detailed writing and drawing.
They give a very high level of control over contrast (the thicks and thins) and come in two main flavors. The black one pictured above has a slightly larger, softer tip that flexes easier and offers a much thicker stroke on the heavy end of the spectrum. Its flexibility does take a little getting used to if you’re still developing your pressure control, but at the same time, there are few other pens better for practicing that.
The blue version’s tip is just a hair smaller, but it’s also much firmer. This allows for a little more forgiveness to the hand-in-training where pressure is concerned, and makes acheiving very fine hairline strokes much less difficult. Each of these pens is remarkable in different scenarios, so I always recommend picking up both and learning each one’s lovable nuances.
Some examples of the Fudenosukes in use:
Sharpie Brush Markers
I have a weird relationship with the Sharpie brush tips, personally. Similar to the Tombow Dual Brush, these don’t really last all that long, possibly even less. They bleed through paper substantially, and dry out way too fast — but I just can’t seem to stop buying them.
There’s something about the way these lay down ink that just intrigues me. There’s a really great roundness to its strokes, and then when things do start to get a little on the dry side, it typically happens from the base, making for a cross-stroke gradient of sorts, that’s really fascinating. They’re also rather cheap, so that never hurts.
Some examples of the Sharpie Brush in use:
Crayola Paint Brush Pens
If you’re looking for the absolute most bang for your buck, then the brush pen for you, hands down, is the Crayola Paint Brush Pen. You can find a five-pack of these anywhere from Target or Walmart to your local craft store, or you can do like I did and get a 40-pack on Amazon for under $30.
Not only are these guys cheap, though — they’re really good. They have a particularly heavy flow when they’re brand new, but not so much that they bleed through everything. They’re more prone to soaking through than the Pentel Color Brush, but not near as bad as the Sharpie brush pens or, say, a Copic (the absolute worst). They don’t last a particularly long time, but they hold up pretty decently. The ink within them will far outlast the contstruction of the felt tip, so again, it presents some fun, unique strokes still once it begins to wear down.
Some examples of the Paint Brush Pens in use:
Crayola Washables
That’s right. The original washable Crayola marker. I actually wrote an entire article here on Medium that stemmed from my personal revelation that the Crayola marker was just as viable a lettering tool as anything else. But then, with enough practice, anything can be the best tool ever.
The bottom line is, these last a really long time, the nibs are nice and firm, so you don’t have to focus quite so much on pressure control, and you can instead just worry more about the overall formation of your letterforms.
I highly recommend that anyone at any skill level give these a shot.
An example of the Crayola washable marker in use (for lettering):
Pentel Fude Touch
I really fell in love with a gray version of the Pentel Fude Touch, or “Sign” pen back in 2013 while working on the Capital One Venture Card Bucketlist campaign, where I put it to use on several of my pieces for them. Similar to the Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens, this one has a fairly small tip, but one that can really get you some great contrast without a ton of effort or a high level of skill.
I feel like this one’s nib is perhaps a little smoother while skating across the surface of the paper than a lot of others, making it a great option for slower, more concentrated strokes.
Some examples of the Fude Touch in use:
Pilot Futayaku Brush Pen
The Pilot Futayaku is a double-ended brush pen again, with two great, but very different tips. On the fine end, there’s a rubber brush tip very much like the Pentel Fude Touch above. The main difference on this one, if any really, is that it might be a little wetter, or have a bit heavier of a flow.
On the other end, there’s a large, very wet brush tip. This one can be fun, but doesn’t offer very much range where contrast is concerned. Unless you’re writing very fast, it’s difficult to get your strokes all that thin, leaving you with results more akin to, say, a bullet style nib.
Some examples of the Futayaku in use:
Molotow Paint Pen
One thing I love to do when concepting and throwing quick iterations together is to use a white pencil or pen on solid black paper. The extremely strong contrast between the black and white is just really hard to match when using pencil on white paper. The increased contrast somehow makes gauging balance and spacing so much easier the first time around. Also, it just looks really cool when you’re done.
The 2mm extra-fine Molotow acrylic paint pen is one of the best, most opaque white pens I’ve found, and moves quite smoothly across the paper, as well. Black construction paper will definitely suffice, but for a smoother, higher quality black paper, the Coal Black Artagain paper from Strathmore is excellent.
Some examples of the Molotow paint pen in use:
Prang Metallic Brush Pens
Sticking with my black paper, Prang makes a delightful little set of metallic brush pens that are a blast to use on dark colored paper. These are very inexpensive, and honestly, when you break them out for the first time, it shows a bit. The brush nibs are very soft felt, and even a little fuzzy when brand new. They almost flirt with being too soft, but don’t give up before you start. With a little extra care, these can be amazing to use. They have a nice flow, especially when new, and it’s about the closest thing I’ve found to having a white brush pen, contrast-wise, so it’s great.
Some examples of the Prang metallic silver pen in use:
Light Table
I received the above light table as a gift from my father-in-law a little while back, and it’s been awesome. I had been on the hunt for a good one that didn’t cost a million dollars for quite a while, even attempting to make my own at one point.
Not only is this one great, with an extremely evenly lit surface, but it runs about $40 on Amazon. More often than not, I iterate using marker paper from Canson, which is just translucent enough to see your underlying work, while not being quite as thin and nearly transparent as tracing paper. When I do find myself in need of a light table though, this one more than meets the challenge.
As I always like to say, you absolutely do not need a single one of these things. You can do literally anything anyone else can do with a simple sharp #2 pencil and a piece of printer paper. In many cases, what these tools really provide is convenience, greater efficiency, or even just a different way of doing the same things.
But if you’re like me, you probably love trying new things, and hopefully, you’ll get as much enjoyment out of these tools as I have over the last few years and continue to today.
Have a favorite tool of your own that isn’t listed here? Add a comment about it here for others to check it out!
Have questions about the thoughts expressed here or thoughts of your own that can’t be addressed in a comment? Have a suggestion for a topic or artist/designer to feature on Handling the Curve? Feel free to email Ryan Hamrick at H@mrick.me any time, and chat. Follow Handling the Curve for more thoughts on design, creativity, and life as it pertains to them.
