Very beautiful, can see the practical use for artists and graphic designers.

'Practical Letter Book' by J. H. Kaemmerer is a historic collection of 140 different lettering plates first published in 1911. The book was for sign painters and show card writers.

There is a pretty good introduction written and the different plates are introduced. Topics like spacing and centering are brought up. Having done some hand lettering myself, these notes are very useful. Then follows 140 plates showing different styles from English to Gothic to Dutch block letters. There are Hebrew, German, and Roman as well. Many of the plates are full alphabet, and many include sample logos written using the lettering.

I'm a font and hand lettering fan, so getting a chance to look through this collection was fun and a bit inspiring. There are some great looking classic alphabets here, and this would make a good resource for hand letterers today.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

This was initially published in 1911 as <em>Kaemmerer's Practical Letter Book: Containing Several Hundred Alphabets in 140 Plates; Together with Descriptive Text, For the Use of Sign Painters, Show Card Writers, Decorators, Artists and Craftsmen</em>. While I am none of those professions, I am fascinated by calligraphy and word art. Kaemmerer's title has stood the test of time and the plates were a delight to look through. This is not a modern how-to guide! The first portion contains specific considerations of the letters and words in different situations while the second contains the beautiful plates. For example, in the case of the English Block Letter: <em>"The M. W. and Y. should be one-third wider than the other letters... These proportions however are by no means arbitrary but must be varied according to the particular word that is being painted. A case where a variation is very necessary is where a sign is to be placed at an elevation and is to be viewed from the ground, for instance, if it is even 10 ft. high it might be necessary to slightly thicken the top and bottom portions of the letter so as to allow for the shortening which comes about from viewing the letters at an angle."</em> There is a considerable amount of useful information for calligraphers, sign painters, and anyone fascinated by lettering. Some modern readers will be disappointed in this book with its lack of tutorials. However I am thankful this title is republished and available today to a new audience.

If you are an artist, sign maker or in any other business or hobby where lettering comes into play, you really want to get this book. Practical it may be, but it is also a lot of fun. This book explains the fonts in the beginning and then goes on to show you some absolutely stunning examples of them in use later on.

These would be great for anyone who does craft projects, or students who are learning to expand their horizons. I think basically anyone could get use out of this book in some way. The introduction was really interesting too, and the author obviously knows what they are talking about, so it made me feel confident.

This is a really helpful book.

This review is based on a complementary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.