Lettering with Illustrator: A Guide to Download!

[Jim_Campbell]

Thank you, Mr Holden! Means a lot.

Put a good word in with Garth for me, eh? I could use the work ... :-)

Cheers

Jim

[Proudhuff]

bumpity bump

[Jim_Campbell]

bumpity bump

This thread's stickied -- I don't think there's any need to bump it ... (?)

Cheers!

Jim

[Emperor]

Just throwing it out as an idea but you could easily make this available on the Kindle and/or iPhone, even bung it through a POD service lie Lulu for those who'd prefer to have it in paper form....

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Oh brilliant I definitely need this cheers a ton Mr C - if anyone has seen my abysmal Crabcake comic you'll know I can't letter for toffee.

AND I LOVE TOFFEE

[HdE]

Having just been handed two 22-page comic books to letter, I decided to printoff Mr. Campbell's guide.

It's some seriously useful stuff. Many thanks, once again, jim!

[Jim_Campbell]

It's some seriously useful stuff. Many thanks, once again, jim!

Ta! I would --once again-- also direct everyone's attention to this Blambot article which I purposely avoided duplicating because it covers the so many of the major aspects of the letterer's craft that it's easier just to link to it!

As ever, if something is unclear in my document, or if you need any extra info, just chuck a post on this thread and I'll do my best to answer it.

Cheers!

Jim

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Ta again Jim I gave it a go last night and Crabcake is looking vaguely acceptable now - ! It's not polished enough to warrant a showing yet but NEVER YOU FEAR, you'll get full props when it does.

[chilipenguin]

Downloaded this as well. Cheers Jim.

I asked this over on the Millarworld forums as well, but does anyway have any unlettered sequentials with the corresponding script that I could have a copy of? I'm trying to practice some lettering but really want to have a go at a complete package.

[Jim_Campbell]

I asked this over on the Millarworld forums as well, but does anyway have any unlettered sequentials with the corresponding script that I could have a copy of? I'm trying to practice some lettering but really want to have a go at a complete package.

The Digital Webbing forums are down at the moment, but their lettering forum has several practice pages, plus sample scripts -- they should be stickied at the top of the forum. If you want serious feedback, post the results up there: Nate Piekos, Clem Robins and Tom Orzechowski all post regularly, as do a fair number of other professional letterers. Be ready for some fairly, errm, bracing criticism but it's all constructive.

When the forum is back up, you should be able to check it out at this link.

Cheers

Jim

[Jim_Campbell]

The Digital Webbing forums are down at the moment, but their lettering forum has several practice pages, plus sample scripts -- they should be stickied at the top of the forum.

The forum's back up, and the 'Activities' thread is here.

Cheers!

Jim

[chilipenguin]

You are legend! Cheers Jim.

[HdE]

Got a question - help me Obi - Jim - Kenobi, you're my only hope!

I've started on a new project this week which requires that I use rounded rectangles for speech bubbles and captions. As standard, these need to be double outlined.

Following the standard practice for creating double outlined balloons - drawing a shape, copying it, then alt-shift dragging it - I've noticed that the rounded corners of the two shapes don't look quite right - as if they're thicker in the curved parts.

Is there a simple way to fix this, or am I using the wrong approach entirely here?

[Jim_Campbell]

Is there a simple way to fix this, or am I using the wrong approach entirely here?

That's never going to look exactly right unless you draw each separately and tweak the corner radius manually, which would be a right pain in the arse.

Fortunately, there's another way.

Draw your rounded rectangle. Increase the stroke weight until the thickness of the stroke is about the distance you want between your double outline.

Then go Object -> Outline Stroke.

Ungroup the result with CTRL-SHIFT-G and you have two separate shapes, one is the original fill for the rectangle, but your stroke is now a double path. Change the fill to whatever colour you want the gap between the double stroke to have, and then add a stroke colour.

Cheers!

Jim

[HdE]

Cheers Jim! That's a big help!