Understanding Pen Guidelines

Broad Pen Guidelines

The broad pen guidelines are for any 3mm pen – it can be a dip pen or a marker and for the 3.8 mm pilot pen. It is easier to learn all broad pen lettering styles with the larger pen and work down to smaller pen sizes. These guidelines are designed to go with Stephen Ziller’s Book 4, Engrossing Alphabets. The guidelines can be used for Old English and Modified Old English. The lower case is 4 nib widths and the upper case is 6 to 6.5 nib widths. For the illustration, go to the Modified Old English section and open either the Lower Case or Capital Basic Strokes Worksheet. You will need a set of guidelines for every broad pen size that you have. Coming later will be guidelines for more pen sizes and Medieval, Italian and French Round.

Pointed Pen Guidelines

The pointed pen guidelines are for pointed pen nibs. The guideline for Copperplate, Engrosser’s Script, and Roundhand has a wider area for the lower case than the Spencerian and Ornamental guidelines. Traditionally, Spencerian and Ornamental have a narrower lower case than Copperplate, Engrosser’s Script, and Roundhand. Coming later will be guidelines for Business Writing. These guidelines can be used with the Tamblyn book and Ziller’s Books 2 thru 4.

Download guidelines template here