Top 5 Lettering Rules in Comic Books

bad lettering can make really good

comics look like trash. And I think most

of the time people don't even realize

that they're making these mistakes. And

they're super simple to fix. So with

these rules you'll be able to take your

comic and make it look pro spec. Hey,

Walter here, and today i'm joined by my

crazy hair. Yeah, I have no idea what I

want to do with this. I'm just growing

out until I have an idea. Regardless,

we're both here today to talk to you

about comic book lettering. So I think a

lot of people think they just take some

letters, some balloons, throw it on top of

comic book art, and they're good to go.

But no, there is a method to the madness.

It's kind of a subtle art form. Luckily,

if you follow some basic rules, you'll be

well along the way to making your comic

look pro spec. Now, before we start I want

to say these are kind of more guidelines

than rules. So if you're doing something

different or even the complete opposite

of this, that's fine. Just make sure you

have a reason for doing it. But if you

don't have a reason, just follow these

guidelines. It's gonna make your comic

look a lot better, and more importantly,

be a lot easier to read. Side note: I

learned a lot of this stuff from

blambot.com. It's a website run by a

professional comic book letterer. He has a

bunch of tips, tutorials up there. He has

a ton, a ton, a ton of free fonts, sound

effects, dialogue. He also has some paid

fonts up there, but there's a ton of free

ones. It's all the fonts I used for all

the comics I ever did. So make sure you

check out blambot.com. All right, rule

number one is don't cover up the art.

This should be obvious, but it still

happens. Do whatever you can to avoid it.

And the reason is, is because we want to

see the artwork. Alright,

rule number two is fit. We want the words

to fit well inside the balloon. It should

fit like a glove. You don't want the top

to be wider than the bottom, you don't

want the bottom to be wider than the top.

And the reason is, if you do that you're

gonna be wasting space in the balloon.

And if you're wasting space in the

balloon, that means the balloon has to be

bigger to hold the same amount of text.

And if you're doing that, you're covering

up more artwork than you need to. See

rule number one. And this is probably

like one of my biggest pet peeves when

it comes to lettering. Alright, rule

number three.

So with comic book lettering there are

two types of "I"s you

have your regular "I", and your crossbar

"I"s. Now crossbar "I" should only be used

by characters when they're referring to

themselves, like "I like ice cream." You

shouldn't use it at either the start of

the sentence or in the middle of a word,

like "It has a tail." Nothing in there has

a crossbar "I". So the reason for this

is the, the crossbar "I" versus a regular

"I," the regular "I" takes up less room.

So if you're taking up less room, that

means the word balloon's smaller, which

means you're covering up less artwork.

See rule number one. Tied to this is

upper case versus mixed case. Now,

personally I prefer upper case, but there

are comics that use mixed case and it

looks great. But if you're doing mixed

case, which, you know, mix of upper case,

lower case, then this rule probably

doesn't apply to you. You're gonna have

to capitalize correctly. Another

exception to this is for clarity's sake.

Like, for me, I have a character named

Iso, I..S.O, and I thought non crossbar

"I" Iso looked weird, couldn't really

tell what it said. So I changed it to

crossbar "I" and it looked a lot better.

So this is, that's one of those

situations where you can change the

rules.

Alright, rule number four, four? Four is

placement. So you want to make sure that

the balloons are going in order that the

reader needs to read them. So if we're

talking, like, English comics, we're going

from left to right. If it's manga, we're

going in the opposite direction. So make

sure that there's a flow to the letter

balloons, and make sure it's going in the

correct order that you want the readers

to read them. If they start reading stuff

out of order, they're gonna get confused,

they're not gonna enjoy themselves,

they're not gonna like your comic. The

other stuff that goes along with

placement is making sure that you don't

have the outside of the balloon rubbing

up against any other line. Like, you

wouldn't want it up against somebody's

face, up against the panel border, even

like next to another balloon. This

creates a tangent ,which is basically

where two lines meet, and then the viewer

can't really tell where one line ends or

the other one begins. And it just makes

for a confusing image. So try to stay

away from that stuff. Then there's a

couple other things too, like you

wouldn't want to put like a stack of

word balloons between two characters,

because it kind of separates the two

characters,

and kind of creates a wall between the

two of them. Unless you were trying to do

it on purpose for some reason, then feel

free to do that. The other thing you do

not want to do is have like word

balloon tails, like, crossing. Don't cross

the streams. And yeah, so that is rule

number four.

All right, so, rule number five is

consistency. Whatever you decide to do,

make sure you stay consistent with it, so

that the reader can get into the flow of

what you're putting down. So that goes

with the, the outline of the word balloon,

or as it's called the stroke, is the same

thickness throughout the entire thing.

Yes, if they're yelling or something, you

can change the color or how thick it is,

but in general you want to keep it the

same size. You want the space around the

lettering and the word balloon to be

about the same. The tails should look

fairly similar, maybe a little longer

shorter, but the overall thickness of the

tail should be the same. If you're using,

like, straight tails versus, like, swoopy

tails, like, you kind of want to keep all

that stuff consistent. Use the same font,

stay with the same font size. Sure, if

they're yelling, you might want to make

the font bigger, but you don't want to

overdo it. It can become a little tiring

and redundant with the reader. Plus, I

don't need huge text to realize that

someone is yelling. It doesn't have to be

huge. Sure, there's things you can do.

Change it to a grungy font, and maybe a

red balloon if it's an evil demonic

character. There's stuff like that you

can do, but whatever it is that you're

doing, keep it consistent and don't make

it too weird. Otherwise, the reader is

gonna realize that they're reading a

comic. And they're not gonna be able to

engage fully with the story, the

characters, and the artwork. Alright, so

there you go, some simple rules to make

your comics in your lettering look

better. And if you want some more

guidelines and some comic book fonts,

make sure you go check out blambot.com.

So how about it? Are you breaking some of

these rules but have your reasons, or

just think these rules are stupid? Or

maybe have some of your own lettering

pet peeves? Be sure to leave a comment

below, so I can check them out. Otherwise,

be sure to like, link, love, hug, and sub

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Peace.