Gothic Lettering for Tattoos, Signs and Logos: Readability Checklist

Start with readability

Blackletter is dark, dense and narrow, and at small sizes the strokes crowd together. A word that looks great at poster size can turn into a gray block on a card or a small sign. Decide where the lettering will appear and how far away it will be seen, then work from that.

The aim is for a stranger to read your text on the first try. Ask someone who has not seen the design to read it out loud, and treat a hesitation as a sign to simplify.

Avoid all capitals

Blackletter capitals are decorative and were designed to start a word or a sentence. Setting a whole word in capitals makes it hard to read, and many blackletter capitals look alike. Use a capital for the first letter and lowercase for the rest, which also looks more like traditional blackletter.

Spacing and size

Give the letters room. Tight spacing makes the vertical strokes merge, and the word reads as a row of sticks. Leave a little extra space between letters and a clear gap between words, and keep lines well apart if you stack them.

Make the lettering larger than you first think. Thin hairlines and small inner spaces are the first parts to disappear when something is printed small, stitched, carved or painted.

• Prefer short words and names over long sentences.
• Keep the height generous and the lines few.
• Test a printed version at the real size before committing to a final material.

Textura or Fraktur look

Textura is more strongly woven and angular, and it gives a church-book, medieval feeling. Fraktur is somewhat lighter, and it often reads more easily. For a name that must be read quickly, a Fraktur look is usually the safer choice. For a decorative word with a medieval mood, Textura suits it. Compare both on the same word before you choose.

Think about the history too. Fraktur is closely tied to German printing, including its official end in 1941 under the Nazi regime, so consider how the style will be read by the people who will see it.

Check the spelling and accents

Check every letter, because it is easy to misread a gothic capital when you copy it. Spell the text in plain letters first, then compare the result letter by letter. Pay attention to accents and special characters such as umlauts, since not every gothic design includes them, and look at the preview to make sure each one is drawn.

Have a second person proofread, and for anything permanent, such as a tattoo, ask a professional artist to review the final artwork and spelling before work begins.

Making a stencil or template

On this site, the large preview is drawn with a real blackletter font. You can download it as a PNG or print it, then use it as a reference for your design, a template to trace for a sign or a size check at real scale. The pasted Unicode characters are meant for screens, so use the preview when you need something printed.