Of the Just Shaping of Letters

by Albrecht Dürer

Another method.

Or you make T thus in its square: Take your point e. as before, to the right of a., and cut your transverse limb diagonally, as before, yet so that the projection be dimidiated to the right, and at top the angle remain as it falls; and so at the other extremity, only the point f. must be moved as near again to b., the cutting line to be a little more erect, & the projection formed a trifle broader than at the hither end; otherwise shall everything remain as before; as I have delineated for you on the opposite page.

[THE LETTER V.]

V you shall thus make in its square: Bisect c. d. in the point e.; then set the point f. one-tenth of the whole line a. b. beyond a., and in like fashion g. to the hither side of b. Then draw the broad limb of your letter downwards from f. to e. and sharpen it; & thence draw upwards your slender limb to g.; and at the top produce it in either direction, as you did before at the bottom of [A]; just as you see it shown below.

[THE LETTER X.]

X you shall form thus: Draw two vertical lines e. f. and g. h. distant respectively one-tenth part of the line a. b. from the sides a. c. and b. d. Then draw the two limbs intersecting one another in the form of a cross—the broad one so that at top, & with its hither side it shall touch e., & at the bottom, and with its farther side h.; but the narrow limb so that at top, and with its farther side it may touch g., & at bottom, with its hither side f. Then add its projections, touching, at top and bottom, the four angles a. b. c. d., & choose a semi-diameter of the larger circle of the length of a fifth part of a. b.; & with that you shall round out the four greater angles; but for the lesser circle you shall take a diameter as long as two-thirds the width of the broader limb.

Or you may vary X thus: Let everything be left as before except the narrower limb, which at top you shall make more erect by one-half the breadth of the wider limb; and so the upper part of the letter shall be less and narrower than the lower, and shall have a different aspect, as is shown below.