My dad was an architectural draftsman. In the 60s growing up he had an office at home with a big drafting table and all the tools, including his “Leroy”. As a kid I would sit near him and watch him draw. I remember watching him letter with the Leroy. He could lay down those letters almost as fast and as and perfect as anyone could write by hand. I remember it very well.
Too bad prices are set so as to make mental arithmetic on them exceedingly difficult. In a better world, you would add up the prices in your head as you went, so you would be able to have your check ready before you reach the register.
Who writes checks at the grocery store checkout? First off, the register prints them, second, we have chips! Mmm...potato chips...I ate them, just scan the empty bag. Oh, and this Pepsi. (Welcome to WalSumpm).
A little history: Keuffel and Esser Co., also known as K&E named the very early versions of their "Controled Lettering Products" series "Le Roi" (in French The King). This later morfed into "Leroy". This appears to be the model instrument you have. Around 1968 I was working for a small engineering company that had contracted with a small (pop 7000+-) village in Michigan This tow had annexed several sections of land from the surrounding county. This necessitated a complete redraw of their house numbering master plans. These master plans amounted to 42 "plates" or full sized sheets of heavy velum. All roads and streets as well as buildings, houses and house numbers were drawn on these sheets in very permanent India ink. We did all very large lettering with a Leroy. Such as sheet titles and covers. ALL the rest was hand lettered including street names and house numbers. We used "split nib dip pens" or split pens and india ink wells. All of pur compasses, scribes etc. were dip pens like the one you showed. All of our straight lines, triangles, french curves and scales had lifted edges on them for ink. Rapidographs were available then but their control for line weight, reliability and consistency were simply nonexistent at the quality level demanded. Oh yes! during the course of this work as a matter of fact on the very last plate the owner of the engineering company quietly came up behind me while I was finishing the last few house numbers and bumped my elbow sending a full cup of hot coffee spreading across the entire sheet ruining it! I spent the rest of that night first drying then tracing guidlines in light pencil and re-inking that whole plate so he could meet his contract deadline. The next day when I came in I was fired and never paid for that 10 hour night. One thing for sure though that town got some MAGNIFICENTLY drawn plates!
One wonders what the Owner of such an Engineering business who'd screw up such a relationship with a staff member today would face.... In my country that business would be BROKE in compensation fines paid out in penalties for non-payment of wages all the way through to the high possibility of actual but mysteriously untraceable violence upon him, (as in not getting mad but getting even) .. just saying!
In college we learned first on the lettering & scribe sets. After we mastered them, we got different scribes that could hold Rapidograph pens. Each of those wells made a different line width. Most of the lettering guides gave an idea of what well number to use. You put the well into the scriber, then a drop of India ink went into the well and the pin put back in. You didn't touch the pin in any way except to refill the well, which needs to be done over paper towels, or if the scribe was skipping but still had ink in it, we removed the pin to clean the well. There were dozens of lettering guides for the K & E Leroy systems. But we had the basic set of fonts & sizes. Our sets went from '000' to '9'. Even though the letters on the guide looked like you would get an italic style of font, it made them correct. To get italics, you could buy another set of lettering guides or as we were taught, you adjusted your scribe's angle to create italic letters that had a 15° slant. While it was very interesting to learn I can honestly say I was thrilled when we moved on to using Rapidograph pens. All through my Engineering career, I did a lot of my own drafting and I used Rapidographs Pens with diamond tips, they lasted longer. '00' through '3' were our company's favorites. Keeping replacement points (especially the '00') in stock was a hardship for those in charge of the company inventory. By the time I graduated college. The K & E Leroy lettering sets were not used much. They were replaced by electronic lettering machines that used the Rapidograph pens and could put out up to 5 lines of text, depending on the font size, in its memory to print out however the amount of times needed. Some companies used tape machines. Very similar to the labeling machines most people have in their homes these days. Our company preferred the electronic machines over the waste of the labeling machines. I've had to take early retirement, and for the last 10 years I still miss drafting up proposals and bids. One of my employees used the scribe and lettering guides of old English letters for creating certificates and diplomas for various schools & groups in our area. She loved doing it. I hope my description of the set helped you understand the process. It's delicate work. But once you get the idea it is easy.
The scribe shown will work with the Rapidograph pens and Rapidomatic mechanical pencils. It will clamp the pen and pencil by the 3mm diam. section above the sleeve or needle tip.
About 1958, I was in a Jr. High that had a print shop where they taught us various skills like typesetting and using drawing instruments like these. As I remember, the "proper" slant was 17.5deg to the right. Nice memories.
@@nursenacoskun617 Selam, Türkiye'de Leroy'un buradaki orijinal setinden ziyade bunun muadili olan Lutz Superdyne'i bulman daha kolay olur. Onu da İstanbulda Cağaloğlundaki antikacılarda ya da Ankara'da Tunalı'daki pasajlarda bu işle ilgilenen dükkanlarda bulabilirsin. Tam takımı için durumuna göre 2000-4000 TL arası fiyat söylerler. Harf şablonları piyasada mevcut zaten. İlla antika olsun diye derdin yoksa onu bulmak kolay. Burada asıl dikkat etmen gereken kalemi bulmak. Şansın varsa kalemi sağlam olan eksik bir set bulursan daha ucuza kapatabilirsin.
@@nursenacoskun617 Selam, bir cevap yazdım ama galiba silinmiş ya da hiç gitmedi. Türkiye'de Leroy'u bu şekilde tam set olarak bulman zor olur. Ancak bunun muadili olan Lutz Superdyne'i İstanbul'da Cağaloğlundaki antikacılardan ya da Ankara Tunalı'daki pasajlarda antikacılardan bulabilirsin. Eğer setin her parçası tamsa ürünün durumuna göre 2000-4000 TL arası fiyat verirler. Yine de ful set bulamazsan da en azından kalemini bulabilirsen o bile yeterli. Sonuçta yazı şablonlarını piyasada ucuza bulmak zor değil.
@@nursenacoskun617 Selam, bir cevap yazdım ama galiba silinmiş ya da hiç gitmedi. Türkiye'de Leroy'u bu şekilde tam set olarak bulman zor olur. Ancak bunun muadili olan Lutz Superdyne'i İstanbul'da Cağaloğlundaki antikacılardan ya da Ankara Tunalı'daki pasajlarda antikacılardan bulabilirsin. Eğer setin her parçası tamsa ürünün durumuna göre 2000-4000 TL arası fiyat verirler. Yine de ful set bulamazsan da en azından kalemini bulabilirsen o bile yeterli. Sonuçta yazı şablonlarını piyasada ucuza bulmak zor değil.
The sound it would have made to have a room full of people using those quickly would have been so cool. We have lost so many sounds that people never thought anyone would want to hear in the future.
My mom used be a drafter, using these tools and the later and much more user friendly ink pens. She still has a wide selection of the Rotring pens with tips in all differens sizes, the rulers and compass with the fixture for the pens. All working and in use in rare occasions. As for the lettering, she, as well as any skilled drafter out there, would write like this freehand - very impressive to watch. Thank you for sharing Fran - love your videos.
That brings back some memories. I was a draftsman for many years once upon a time, ink and Mylar. I doubt that many nowadays would have the patience it takes do this, let alone the lettering. Nice video.
DaSmokeDaddy I used to do that for a living. Many engineers back then would have their drawings published with the inking I loved doing it until computers did away with these
I still occasionally have to update drawings done ink on transparent film (using isograph pens normally) although I simply have a ruler with stencil holes for lettering (using a .35 yellow tip pen and a 3.5mm ISO stencil)
If this was still the standard, there would be plenty of people with the patience. We have 3D CAD now with automatic text scaling- there's no need to know how to properly use a lettering guide.
Cool Rememberance! Back in the 80s, working for one of the largest brazilian personal computers as a designer, I would often go to the drafting department, led by my fellow Chilean colleague (who I sadly lost contact). At this department there were like a dozen large format drafting tables (like A0 size), all equipped with pantographic squares (my dream setup I never had for myself). In tohse tables, always a legion of skilled drafters who would do the computer board schematics with all the letterings using this system (only that the ones we used in Brazil were german, from Staedtler, and not from K&E). It was really hipnotic to watch those guys writing with those rulers... Fast, precise and beautifully looking. But back then they were not using anymore those pens with the little weight to avoid spills. They used the more modern "Normograph" pens, which you would get filled with quite a good amount of ink, whose anti-spill needles would have saphire tips to avoid wear). Those normographs were the same as it became commonplace in computerized plotters.
I started with the company I work for in the late 70's doing mechanical drafting. It was all analogue back then but at least we had drafting machines. Originally with the drafting arms then finally we "upgraded" to the track style. We did use T squares at times. Early on I used to hand letter everything but then again there was an "upgrade" to our system where we finally got lettering templates. I got to where I was pretty fast with those and it looked better than my hand lettering. I did always kind of want to get a Leroy setup but never had the chance. And eventually we moved into using CAD and pen plotters. Now almost 40 years later and still with the company I do solid CAD modeling for splitting up and setting up build for all our RapidPrototyping macines (3dSystems SLA machines). This video brings back memories. I remember it was Christmas any time we got a new template back in the day, or a new lead holder.Thank you Fran for this nostalgic piece of equipment video.
After watching this video and rekindling my oldskool drafting interest I found a complete never used set on ebay for $33. It had the original sales receipt in the bottom, the guy bought it in 1968 for $138 which equates to just about $1000 today. Can you imagine paying a grand just to write perfect letters?!
yea, that's a small price to pay since precision for manual drafting back in the day was everything also CAD licenses nowadays are really expensive too, albeit cheaper than a full manual drafting set
We still have a Leroy set at work. It hasn't been used for serious work for work in about 30+ years, but we have maps and plans that were lettered using it. I also inherited a K&E drawing set like that that was made sometime in the 30s. Fun seeing this.
This takes me back a few years. Before large scale printing was available. I would draw my designs in pencil. Then when it was approved. I would ink over all the pencil lines. So it would make crisper blueprints. I created an inked grid of the different sizes of letters I used. I would tape the grid under the vellum. The grid provided the spacing for the Leroy lettering set. I still have have my Leroy Lettering set. When I die my children will probably throw all of my drafting tools, all my references books, Note books, hand drawn drawings, and my machinists tools. My tools that I make so many things with are measured down to one ten thousandth of an inch. They aren’t metric so they are useless. I was a master mechanical engineer, my father, grandfather and great grandfather were all master machinists. I have all of their drawings, models and tools. It is a shame that children don’t value anything you can’t do online. Sad so very sad.
I have my dad's old Leroy set... The tip in the pen is standard for all inking pens. The action of the tip hitting the paper (or velum...) lets the ink flow in a controlled manner. Also, the swinging arm allows you to do italics.
Looked at the video to get an idea on how the system works. Found a wrico at a thrift store for $15 that appears complete with extras and with instructions. It's well used but cared for. It does standard vertical, italic, standard slant as well as 60 degree isometric left and right from the same guides. The pencil was still mounted so I could play with it right away. Thanks for posting.
I used one of those through the 80's during high school drafting, and also on a job I once had working for a survey company doing oil well plats. Mostly the Leroy was used to do lettering on mylar or non paper media only, drafting on paper you had to hand print with pencil. Once you got used to using one you can letter almost as fast as you normally write, kind of like typing. Looking back it was a fun experience. Also, in the latter 80's the ink well tips were abandoned in lew of ink filled pens. So less messy.
It does slide back and forth. I used a Leroy for years, and kerning is by the eye of the operator since the angle of the letters changes with how you adjust the stylus. I used gridded paper, and that helped some.
With a Leroy, word and letter spacing, including kerning, is strictly by old-fashioned eyeball method. Remember, this is not typesetting, just an improvement on hand lettering.
Those were expensive, back in the day. My father was a draftsman, hydrologist, surveyor, and engineering technician for the USDA. You would have the drafting machine to rest the Leroy guide on. I have a very very old K&E table with a very very old machine on it. I'd say it is turn of the century, with the cast iron scroll work on the table's bracing. It's all cast iron and oak, with a cast machine, that has spring steel on rollers to keep it held in place.
I used a lettering set just like this a lot (made by Staedtler?) when I took a drafting course back in the early eighties. You'll find the pins in the pens are to let the ink flow much better with capillary action. Little bears to keep clean; we had an ultrasonic cleaner. The Staedtler cartridge pens you could buy (still available?) would fit the holder. I even scrounged a lead holder so I could use drafting pencil lead. I loved the whole kit, it sure beat the hours I spent working on practice sheets for hand lettering! Thanks for showing!
The capilary pens will write on non porus surfaces also. Practical uses are alchohol inks on plastics, ink on glass, thinned model paints on anything, Add text to painted control panels etc... use your imagination. Ultrasonically clean the pens with a mildly caustic soloution. Get a Leroy pen set for more ink (the leroy pens fit the Bug (scriber).).
I initially learned drafting in my Sophomore year of High School, starting with ink on velum with stencils. Starting on velum taught us to get things right the first time (pay attention, stay focused), which paid dividends later when we had to get faster. We were so slow that a single sheet of velum lasted us the first two weeks. As our velum sheet became full, we were introduced to the miracles of ink remover, correction tape and White-Out. And the greatest secret of them all, erasable ink! Because velum was expensive, and we weren't ever given a second sheet. The next week we switched to pencil and paper, dropping the lettering stencils. I was practicing my hand-lettering so much (no lettering machines for us) that I completely lost my cursive handwriting. Fortunately we had erasers! The exams felt like learning to print in kindergarten (no erasers on exams). I got a drafting intern job at a local company that summer. When I returned the next summer, the entire department had switched to 2D CAD. I haven't touched a drafting table since. My hard-earned hand-lettering gradually degraded. My cursive never returned, except for my illegible signature. When I went to college I majored in software. I was more interested in creating CAD programs than using them. Still, it's so very good to see the original tools used again.
"It's designed for fast writing." ...according to the standards of the pre-digital age. 😁 I dig old drafting and stationery gear; for example, I treasure my heavy steel, adjustable-spacing manual 3-hole punch my Dad gave me from his drafting days, as well as my classic single-hole punch with the close-fitting transparent blue plastic cover over the "chad reservoir" (or whatever you call it), which, unlike the garbage single-hole punches that seem to be ubiquitous nowadays (with the perforated metal cover), actually holds onto all the paper waste until you intentionally empty it. However, as crappy as my handwriting and freehand work are, I can't imagine using a slow, tricky, and unforgiving lettering kit over a computer and a printer. That big compass with the articulated legs was pretty bad-ass, though. That could definitely come in handy for a lot of fabrication uses.
13:44 Yes, drafting tape, is less sticky than masking tape, though that's what is looks like. It's suppose to pin down the corners of your paper while you work on it, but still release your paper without tearing it. It's ever so slightly more sticky then a post-it. But, it's perfect for raising up your 45degree and 60-30 triangle to keep the ink from getting sucked under by capillary action. I think I managed to buy some of it in the last couple of decades. Would be nice if someone checked when the market for it would die.
Along with the drafting tape, or such, to avoid the messy capillary action, we loaded our pens (with India ink) using an eye dropper. Dipping the pen puts ink on the outside, which fouls the straight edge, unless you take the time to clean the outer surfaces.
Ouch! Those ruling pens (& ruling pen attachment for your compass) really bring back bad memories of my drafting classes. After having to practice lettering (by hand - no Leroy set) in ink with a ruling pen and filling up an entire C- or D-size drawing (and making two drawings in ink), I went to the college book store and discovered the Rapidograph pens. I instandtly bought two -- one for "thick" drafting lines and one for "thin" lines like dimensions & lettering. No more dropping the ink in a blob onto a sheet of vellum from a ruling pen! Thanks for showing the Leroy set -- I've never used one of them.
Technical Drawing. My absolute FAVOURITE lesson in school, double TD on a Friday morning was heaven! Always wondered why my lettering could never quite produce this level of precision and now I know why - my crappy plastic lettering stencil just wasn't up to the job. Watching this wonderful kit in action was extremely satisfying for me! Truly an object of desire should I ever get another drawing board - which admittedly isn't very likely. Wonderful stuff!
Even the finest Rapidograph pen has the wire down the center of the tube (as fine as an acupuncture needle, fragile). On the thinner nibs, it facilitates the flow of ink. The wire is not fixed and floats up and down as the pen is pressed to the paper, thus ensuring that ink will always flow.
Used a Leroy a lot back in the day. It takes a little practice but you get used to it and it's easy. All of the nibs, even the smallest, should have the needle in them. The needle regulates the ink flow. I still have mine and use occasionally just for old-times sake. It's important to match the nib size to the letter size.
I used one of these when working as a draftsman several years (decades) ago. :) It takes practice to get efficient using it. You need to get the pens to use with it. They are 'vintage' too.
Right, I'm late to the party, as always, but regarding this lettering, I eventually found out that the Gottlieb pinball schematics were using this typeface. It was a mixture of handheld and this, which made up for very elegant and legible documents. It took me a fair amount of time to find that this existed. As far as I know, this isn't super common on this side of the pond. Great video!
Hi Fran, my father was a Civil Engineer & surveyor. He had lots of drafting items. I was able to inherit most of them. I didn't follow along his profession. I studied Criminology.
I have never seen this type of instrument. Pretty neat. I remember "back in the days" at school we practiced writing for technical drawings. Today we just use the printer. But I see that at some rare occasions it is actually harder to write with the computer, in cases where you want the letters to follow a curve or in a special direction, if you don't have a really fancy program that cost a lot of money (or you use a lot of time to adjust the text in a image editing program) . I use Microsoft Visio a lot i my job for making block diagrams for an AV-installation. And a few times I actually wrote some special notes by hand on the printout and then scan it in back to a pdf-file on the computer. It may be primitive, but it was a quick way to do it.
This is called a Pantograph. I have the same set my father got from the military in the 1970's. Once you use them for a while it's surprising how fast you can write with one. Interesting factoid, these were commonly used to do the writing in comic books.
MikesRadioRepair Actually, no, a pantograph has a fixed pivot and adjustable scaling. This has a sliding pivot, and doesn't scale the letters, but does add skew, which a pantograph wouldn't.
Those look like rapidograpgh valve tips that screw into a core that screws into a pen barrel. A needle inside the syringe pushes up a weight that dispenses the ink in the right measurement on the printing surface.
Nice. I did a lot of freelance drafting way back when, but never used a Leroy. It’s funny watching this now because Mad Magazine ended its newsstand run in 2019. Until the advent of desktop publishing the letrerers at Mad used the Leroy. In fact it goes all the way back to their EC horror/sci-fi comics of the 1950s. Publisher Bill Gaines didn’t like hand lettering, coupled to the fact that there’s a lot of dialog, thought balloons and narration in an EC comic. Gaines wanted you to be able to read it clearly.
Very nice demo-- I *do* believe there are some "pistons" (sliding pins) missing from your "ink reservoirs" which are better called nibs. Every nib had a piston to start the ink (not just the larger ones)-- you've been lucky with nib size and ink viscosity. In the old days, the ink was based with ammonia. That allowed for cleaning the thing completely, including the interior of the nib. The trick I found with ruling pens was to wipe the nib top and bottom clear before using against a straight edge. Also, you can use tempera or watercolor dyes with ease-- Leroy set too. I still have a warm spot in my heart for Rapidographs, especially the one that looked like a fountain pen. But I've had to yield to Castels when I was active. If you do use technical fountain pens, find the "stencil adaptor." This takes the pen parts and holds the nib vertically while you can hold a pen body at a more comfortable writing angle. In fact, now that I think of it-- that's why I went for Castels-- they had them as part of a 4-pen kit. Makes a huge difference using ellipse sets or french curves-- but just for regular writing too. I found F&W made some really nice acrylic ink that worked pretty well in all my pens. This is roughly over the last 10 years-- I'm not even sure they're still around.
All of those pens should have an ink flow regulating "pin" in them. I've used this set for years. Still use it on special projects. Do a lot of wood working and if I need letters or numbers on a game or whatever, nothing beats the Leroy! The tick marks across the bottom of the template is for lining up the letters and letter spacing.
Thanks Fran! I've been wondering for 30 years now why straight rulers, particularly plastic ones, usually have a kind of rectangular notch to half their thickness on one side. It's so you can draw along it with an ink pen!
When I took engineering drawing at University of Tennessee in 1964, I had so much trouble doing decent lettering that I bought a small Leroy set. It had two templates, two sizes of pen and a lead holder for pencil lettering. That little set probably kept me from failing the course. I became so proficient with it that I could letter just as fast with it as I could freehand. I think, somewhere in a box in the basement, I still have that little gem, 53 years later. My limited set could only do upright lettering. Even though I haven’t used any of them in many decades, I will never part with my drafting tools or my nice Dietzgen slide rule.
I still have some of my original drafting tools including all of my Rapidograph pens that fit into the LeRoy scriber. I used the pens because those little LeRoy nibs slowed me down having to refill them. The scriber set I used wasn't mine so I left it where I worked before going to graduate school. By then, dry transfer lettering was becoming popular and soon HP plotters would be doing all of my personal drawings. First on a mainframe VAX computer, and latter on an AT desktop. I doubt that anyone ever used the LeRoy set after I left, and it probably was soon tossed out.
Wow this sure brings back memories! My father was a draftsman and had pretty much every piece imaginable for the Leroy set. After he passed I had pretty much all of it for MANY years, until some unfortunate financial troubles set in, and, well, you know...
I am old enough to have used that tool in college, when they still had drafiting classes. Great to see it revived... but you are doing it wrong! That needle with a hockey puck on top is not just a tool to clean the pen. The needle must be inside the cup while writing. The needle moves up and down slightly as the pen is lowered and raised, and that both prevents the ink from spilling out and pulls down just the right amount of ink, by capillary action, no matter how full the cup is. The same principle is used in the Rapidograph drafting pens and even in some modern high-quality ones.
Hi Fran, thank you for this video. Clearly it’s not your first rodeo on that scriber! I ran out and got one… WHAT a mess I made! Hoping it improves. HOWEVER… I miss much of your video without CC. I can’t watch your others either without it. 🙁
Thanks for the demo. I come from the generation that learned drafting by hand. I wondered how the pitch was controlled. Looks to me like you need some more practice Fran... Just teasing. Very cool, wish I had this device in grade school. Bob
The pin inside the ink reservoir acts like a valve. When it contacts the surface, it opens the flow for the ink. This is the same approach as in a technical drafting pen.
So, I was learning "Mechanical Drawing" and struggling with making my lettering neat and up to my Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering father's standards, when I found out that HE was using a Leroy for his drawings at work.
Viewing this quite late, but it was so informative! I was given 3 K&E lettering sets, and the drafting pens (that hold the ink and can screw into a handle, not sure what they're called) and mechanical pencil. Now I know how I was trying to use them was wrong and this clears up a lot! I use the pens for pen and ink drawings but couldn't figure out how to use the other stuff.
What a fascinating piece of equipment ! When doing a spell of drafting early in my career I always struggled with printing. Indeed, the chief draftsman likened my printing the the effect of a spider having dipped it's feet in ink and crawled across the paper...
This was THE video I was looking for! My 12 year old son had come across a video of someone using one of these lettering sets and was really interested so I ended up purchasing one from ebay, it is a Tech Graphic Profesional lettering set TGP12S. It had everything in it except ink and of course detailed instructions. We desperately want to be able to use it so I have been trying to find out what kind of ink to get and exactly how to use it! Thanks for this video. If anyone has any useful of helpful advice or info I would appreciate it bunches!
I would like to see this improved by some kind of incremental step mechanism. To help with the letter positioning. Maybe have three sizes of spacing - slim for i and l, medium for Ts and most small letters, a full for Ws and Hs. Forcing the user to spend so much effort finding and maintaining the position of the next letter just seems like such an oversight, or that there are parts missing. That shouldn't be something to even focus your attention on. There should just be a clicker. So you can go "ok, that was a two wide letter, click-click" and work that into your subconsious routine. I really think it would up the speed and confidence and make it a truly useful and relevant tool. And yes, such a mechanism would mean a lot more complexity, there would be gears and sliding bits involved, but what's in the video isn't something I would ever want to do on a regular basis. My stuff would have crooked half legible writing on it just like now.
Used these as a co-op student preparing vellum maps of electrical distribution systems and other associated documentation in the early 70's. Computers have so changed our lives it is hard to imagine this as a superior technology to hand-lettering. We had to work from the top down and remember not to drag anything through the fresh ink until it dried or you had to start over. You'll get better at it as your practice LOL.
12:40 Oh, that's it' Ruling pens that are only ruling pens have a shaft comfortable for the hand. That one is and extension to the bendy wide compass. It's exactly like the one I have, which I mentioned above.
Wow! This takes me back! I lost the chance at a very good job because of the “Leroy Lettering Machine”! During the interview, they asked if I was proficient with the Leroy Lettering Machine? I said “Sorry, I don’t know what that is. “ the interviewer didn’t know what it was either…failed the interview and went back to the college that I was attending, to tell instructor the sad news. He laughed and took me over to a cupboard in the classroom…pulled out a Leroy Lettering Machine and wrote, “You dummy!” And then showed me the label on the box for the tool. Ouch! I learned a valuable lesson that day: Always ask more questions about their job requirements.
I saw these used in drafting class (didn't get to try it myself). You nailed that first letter, lifting the pen between strokes. Very nice. ~~~ I wonder if anybody is teaching the the letter spacing rules we were taught. One wants to keep the mass/volume of white-space between the letters of approximately equal area, in order to avoid letters from being crowded. Modern fonts should do that automatically (I think). For example, "HB" vs. "C3" vs. "Tj" . C followed by 3 has a lot of open space already, so they should be squeezed together to consume some of that space. With the font that I'm typing with, he T followed by the j seems to do a good job of that. But the H and B should have space added to push those vertical lines apart a bit, so they don't look crowded. Yet the font I'm seeing now doesn't seem to care about that. Let's try "HIB". Well, the proportional spacing is managing to keep the space on either side the I equal, but it still seems crowded to me. I wonder if serifs would matter.
Anyway, when you did FranLab, look at how the "n" doesn't look centered between the "a" and "L". The same goes for the "a" between "L" and "b". You could really crunch that "a" up against the "L" and it would still be gobs of open white-space. But the "b" after the "a" really needs more breathing room. Well, at least according to what I was taught. I may actually have a text-book around here that shows that.
I can sympathize with having to hold the t-square steady. Newer drafting machines, if they still existed, have locking breaks. And, the straight edges kept parallel by way of cables were easier to pin down. Whatever the case, I would have taken no shame in clamping down a straight edge. As tedious as that would be, the time lost when lettering would have been a small percentage of the overall effort.
Have to bail at 10 minutes, but with this you're always having to estimate the spacing. Should be something to help with that, no? And maybe if the point that sits into the template letters is exactly the width of the space, then you'll get better lettering...
IT DOES ITALIC!! Wait. You're doing fine, Fran. 20 mins. you would master it. (You can stop waiting, I don't know how to put Italic in a comment). Anyway, You ROCK Fran.
Squa Tront! This lettering system was used by EC Comics in the early 1950s. Like most comics of the era, everything was hand lettered, and this allowed for more uniform lettering at a faster pace. Once MAD transitioned to a magazine format, they used machine lettering for dialogue balloons.
When I took mechanical drawing in high school (1963), I always got marked down for my sloppy lettering. Not surprising, since anyone who has seen my handwriting asks if I am a doctor. So I bought a small Leroy set and made my lettering “letter perfect.” With a little practice, you can use it almost as quickly as hand lettering. The sets also had a holder for pencil leads. I’m a dinosaur because I still prefer a T-square and triangles to CAD.
