Your computer comes loaded with dozens of fonts, and there are thousands more to find online. But unless you understand the underlying principles of typography, no out-of-the-box font will make your designs look as professional, compelling and memorable as they should. The rules and examples below are how classic typographers created legible and effective text before the aid of computers. With these concepts in your tool belt, you can modify and experiment with existing fonts while keeping quality and readability high.

Some letters take up more space than others. The letter "I", for example, needs a lot less width than a letter "H." Lettering artists discovered that if all letters were made with the same proportions, some letters would look too wide and others would appear squished. When too narrow, for example, a ‘W’ appears pinched.

And an “S” can appear too wide if it takes up as much room as an "M".

All 26 letters of the alphabet can be loosely categorized as wide letters, square letters, round letters, and narrow letters.

Generally, the two wide letters "M" and "W" should be lettered a bit wider than their height.

The eleven square letters and round letters look best when they're designed to be about as wide as they are tall. The six square letters are: H A U N T V,

and the five round letters are: O C Q G D.

The thirteen remaining letters are visually proportioned when they are half as wide as they are tall. The 13 narrow letters are B E F I J K L P R S X Y Z.

To help get you ready to design your own font, let's practice hand-lettering a classic poem by Carl Sandburg. Print out the following worksheet, and use all-capital letters similar to those on this page. Make sure you follow the proportions for each class of letter, whether it's wide, square, round, or narrow. . When finished, submit it to your teacher for a grade.

Your work will be graded using the following rubric:

Hand Lettering Fog

	Criteria
Letter Proportions 1 Point	1 Point: Each letter is correctly proportioned in terms of width and height. You correctly reproduce wide letters, narrow letters, square letters, and round letters.
Hand Drawing and Capitals 2 Points	1 Point: All words are written in capital letters.
	1 Point: All letters are drawn by hand.
Guide Usage 1 Point	1 Point: All letters conform to the proper cap height, baseline, and x-height shown in the guide, and are neat and legible.