If you’re new to digital hand lettering, calligraphy, and creative lettering, it can be difficult to find all of the online resources to help improve as a lettering artist.
That’s why we built a list of creative lettering resources to help you get started!
From artist inspiration to lettering books, practice pages, and modern calligraphy tutorials, this list has everything you need to create beautiful works of art in a digital format.
Stefan Kunz
Ian Barnard
Lettering Daily
Sarah Mcfarland
Myyriam Frisano
James Lewis
Emilee Rudd
Shelly Kim
Becca Courtice
Ali Tufan Ulbegi
Rachel Ryle
Hanna A.
Dima Tkachev
Ryan Hamrick
Karin Newport
Maria Frolova
Cynthia Lopez
Paperlike
Laruen Hom
Nick Misani
Annica Lydenberg
Kelly Klapstein
Calligraphy DK
Nicole Mauloni
Amanda Pel Arneill
GoodType
James Martin
Adam Vicarel
Typetopia
The Daily Type
Nicole Miyuki Santo
Teela
Paperlike Recommends
Tablets
Pen & Stylus
Paperlike Recommends
Apps
Digital Brushes
Podcasts
Books
YouTube Channels
Classes & Workshops
Resource Websites
Creative Lettering and Beyond
Hand lettering has gotten popular in the past few years.
Instagram makes it easy to connect with an incredible community of lettering artists who regularly show users the ins and outs of digital brush lettering.
Grab your iPad or your smartphone, and get ready to liven up your feed with some of our favorite Instagram creative lettering experts.
Once upon a time, Stefan Kunz was actually a banker.
Now, this world-renowned lettering artist has a laundry list of major clients under his belt including Coca-Cola, Swarovski, Adobe, and others.
His Instagram is filled with powerful and inspirational lettering artwork designed to help you stay motivated, whether you’re practicing letterforms or filling up your lettering sketchbook.
Ian isn’t just an expert hand lettering artist. He also creates products that help artists improve their digital lettering skills. That includes brushes for Procreate and practice sheets (some of which you’ll find elsewhere on our list).
Armed with an iPad, an Apple Pencil, and an Instagram gallery of artwork drawn in a variety of lettering styles, Ian is a top artist who can show you how creative lettering is as much about graphic design as it is about drawing letters.
One of our favorite accounts for hand lettering, Lettering Daily showcases lettering artists from all around the world.
Here, you’ll find a smorgasbord of lettering styles, from modern calligraphy and chalk lettering to digital lettering, sketching, and fine art.
It’s a fun way for hand letterers to put their work on display for the community, and it’s a great way for beginners to see all the great lettering styles out there today.
Founder of The Lettering Library, Sarah is obsessed with teaching others how to make a living doing what they love.
Her cursive style is simple and easy, but there is something to be said about the nuance of a simple color palette and smooth, basic shapes.
If you’re looking for the technical precision that comes with hours of lettering practice and a razor focus on traditional calligraphy, Myriam’s unique style may be a perfect fit.
Unlike many lettering artists on our list, Myriam’s style doesn’t have the same bounce and lightness that has influenced many modern lettering styles.
Mostly analog, her work is clean, sharp, and poised — a standout among other artists in this genre.
Not strictly a lettering artist, James combines his graphic design and artistic talents to create artwork for some of the biggest brands on the planet. His Instagram is packed with colorful artwork and recordings of art in action.
On the hand lettering front, James often creates artwork using fonts and lettering styles that you’ve seen somewhere in television shows and comic books.
While James combines other disciplines into his artwork, the art of hand lettering still plays a critical role in his creative process.
Based in Sacramento, CA, Emilee combines lettering with design and illustration to create full-blown artistic pieces for her freelance clients.
From coffee cup artwork to logo designs and murals, Emilee constructs elaborate and creative designs across multiple disciplines and mediums. But lettering is almost always at the heart of everything she does.
If you’re looking to do more than practice with a brush pen or some tracing paper, Emilee’s work is a great example of how to combine creative lettering with other forms of painting and illustration.
An insurance agent gone lettering pro, Shelly Kim is a lettering expert who has taught workshops around the world.
Shelly is a big fan of watercolor lettering as well as digital lettering, and her Instagram is filled with examples of formats, as well as a light and airy style.
Shelly's work maintains a very DIY and handmade feel — something that’s easy to lose when artists overpolish their work. To that end, Shelly makes lettering look easy, and her content is accessible in a way that makes her a great starting point for artists looking to sharpen their lettering skills.
Even though Becca does way more than modern calligraphy, her Instagram is filled with great examples of creative lettering applied to real-life situations.
Whether she’s designing a business card or adding lettering art to a storefront window, Becca can show you how creative lettering sends a message, tells a story, or serves a unique purpose.
A self-described typo-graffiti artist, Ali Tufan Ulbegi mixes the basics of typography with graffiti in order to create a unique lettering style.
You can see great examples of his artwork on his Instagram page, but you’ll also find several in-process videos that reveal how he creates artwork in his distinct style.
Nearly all of these videos are created using an iPad, so digital letterers can get an inside look at how software can help bring hand lettering to life.
With over one million followers on Instagram, it’s safe to say that Rachel’s minimalistic lettering style strikes a chord with fans around the world.
Rachel combines animation and hand-drawn artwork to tell incredible stories. Nearly all of her Instagram artwork is designed to take you on a journey, but pay close attention to the unique lettering artwork along the way!
The creative lettering that Hanna applies to the page is a combination of uppercase swirls and lowercase whorls.
That might sound excessive at first blush, but it isn’t. Hannah’s embellishments are practically applied and serve as a great example of how a skilled artist can use creative lettering techniques to embolden a piece without going overboard.
Dima’s unique letterforms are a great fit for logo design and brand creation — something that is reflected by his long list of corporate clients.
His Instagram is filled with process-based videos highlighting his typography and artistic process — including his transfer from analog format to digital platforms.
A lettering director and artist, Ryan’s instagram profile is filled with lettering examples and links to useful brush resources for digital hand letters.
His work has appeared in multiple print publications and his stream provides great insight into how calligraphy and typography are applied in these mediums.
While Karin has an entirely separate career as a software developer, she’s passionate about lettering and spends a ton of time designing resources for the hand lettering community.
On her Instagram, you’ll find a ton of beautiful hand lettering designs as well as training resources to help amateur practitioners improve their lettering prowess.
A self-described iPad adept, Maria’s work features beautifully detailed letters across a variety of styles. Sometimes, she letters in a chalkboard style.
Other times, Maria applies chrome and metallic effects for a completely different look and feel. She’s even added dragons and other nordic symbology to some of her lettering designs.
If you’re looking for variety, this artist is one to follow.
Cynthia keeps her style light, easy, and fun.
A creator of digital goods for creatives, Cynthia’s Instagram is filled with great in-process videos and a gallery of fun and positive aspirational type.
In many ways, Cynthia takes a minimalist approach to lettering, preferring to apply lettering to plain or simple backgrounds, but she implements patterns and drop shadows for added effect to make her designs pop.
We might be a little biased, but we work hard to curate some of the best artwork — including lettering — on the Paperlike Instagram page.
Follow us as we find and feature great digital artists from around the world.
Lauren is on a mission to help creatives grow their brand and their business. She’s also an incredible lettering artist.
Whether she’s painting murals or drawing on paper, Lauren’s helpful resources and lettering expertise can help creatives who want to build a business do more with their art.
Based in Paris, Nick is a designer who combines lettering with other contemporary forms.
His unique and varied style has been featured on everything from book covers to advertising campaigns for major brands. Recently, Nick has been posting a lot of fauxsaics — typographic mosaic illustrations — something that stands out from everything else on our list.
If you’re looking for a breath of fresh air, Annica’s work can cut through all the clutter and the noise of daily life. Her work combines lettering techniques with simple but powerful messaging that embodies a “tell it like it is” style and format.
Nearly every piece on her Instagram page is meant to engage and tell a story, and the typographic arrangement shines through all the while. Do yourself a favor and take a look at this incredible artist.
Want to see real lettering in action? The videos on Kelly’s Instagram have a DIY look and feel that almost underplay the level of technique required to create such powerful imagery.
If you’re looking to learn the art of creative lettering, the no-frill approach that Kelly takes for her Instagram videos can provide key insights into basic shapes that make good, modern calligraphy so appealing.
Set up as a global curator for typography, this Instagram account can show you letterforms and lettering styles that you never even dreamed about.
The artists they feature and the variety of designs that trickle through their posts are a great source of inspiration for creative lettering artists of all levels.
Are you looking for something bright and uplifting in your lettering life? Nicole’s simple but powerful lettering style might be just what you need.
Unlike many of the artists we’ve featured so far, Nicole doesn’t add much in the way of art when drawing letters. Instead, she lets the letters do the talking and leaves the rest to the imagination.
Simple, elegant, and inspirational. Nicole’s work is modern calligraphy at its finest.
Teela’s art style is all about good, clean lines accompanied by great art.
She’s a digital artist and spends a lot of time with her Apple Pencil and her iPad creating tutorials and graphics to help other artists grow.Did we mention that she’s a Paperlike power user?
Another Paperlike aficionado, Calligraphy DK is a master at iPad calligraphy.
His pieces often feature bright, colorful lettering on dark, smokey, or cosmic-style backgrounds. It’s a change from the light and airy feel that we see with other lettering artists, but it’s no less technically precise!
If you want to learn some amazing (and deceptively simple) lettering techniques, check out DK’s channel.
As far as calligraphers go, Nicole follows a traditional lettering style.
The flow of her script is exceptional, and — like some other letterers on our list — she gives the type room to breathe rather than crowding it with other pieces of art and design.
The lack of other major design elements means that the text has to stand on its own, and that makes her style a great jumping-on point for artists who want to see powerful lettering in action.
Amanda has some incredible resources for beginning artists, but her Instagram is filled with great examples of how the basic elements of design can intersect with lettering art.
Her calligraphy journaling is a beautiful portrayal of how different lettering styles, fonts, and typefaces can be couched together to highlight different parts of the text. It’s genuinely text as art in one of its purest forms.
Another incredible account for finding new lettering artists!
If you’re looking for a new artist or you want to see the different forms of lettering in action, GoodType’s top-notch curation can provide inspiration with just a scroll or a click.
For letterers interested in a challenge, #GoodTypeTuesday is a great way to get into lettering based on a simple and easy prompt.
What stands out most about James’ Instagram isn’t the cross-section of lettering and design — although both of those elements are spot on. It’s the idea behind iteration.
On his Instagram, James often posts variations on a logo that he's working on. While this usually doesn’t provide much in the way of calligraphy, it shows just how lettering styles play into logo design in terms of placement and styling.
If you’re looking for key insights into how art morphs and changes to suit a need, this account is one to follow.
Adam’s work jumps the line between modern calligraphy and fine art. Though he’s a lettering artist, his Instagram account is a mashup of lettering, branding, logos, and illustration.
Like some of the other artists we’ve featured here, his profile is a great window into art practically applied, but Adam manages to keep a freshness of quality in his artwork that is hard to maintain at such a high level.
Typetopia isn’t a lettering account in the traditional sense. While they do post great designs for letterers, they also focus on some incredible insights about the lettering trade.
Their posts will invite you to guess fonts, figure out logos, and determine which typefaces are correct or incorrect for a given situation.
It’s all in good fun, and it’s a great mental challenge for aspiring letterers.
If you’re looking for an effective hardware (or maybe a gift idea) for digital hand lettering, this section can help you to get started.
There are two main components when it comes to digital lettering: A tablet and a stylus.
We’ll cover both in detail below.
Our team conducted a ton of research while compiling our list of digital lettering resources.
We spent hours browsing for the best hardware solutions out there, and we even consulted with lettering experts to get their take on the market.
While we’re going to include some basic research options below, every expert we spoke with recommended the exact same thing:
Whether you’re an amateur letterer or a calligraphy veteran wanting to take your skills to the next level, an Apple iPad and Apple Pencil is the best hardware solution for digital letterers.
We also recommend a Paperlike screen protector!
Paperlike protects your screen from scuffs and scratches and transforms the tablet’s slippery glass screen into a drawing surface that feels just like real paper. That’s extra useful if you’re trying to switch your artistic process from paper to digital.
The tablet is the digital equivalent of a notebook or sketchbook. You’ll draw on this. The stylus (below) is your digital pen or pencil.
There are three main types of digital tablets:
Tablet computers, like the iPad, are self contained computers. They have an operating system and you can do more with them than draw.
Graphics tablets need to be plugged into a desktop or laptop computer in order to function properly. These tablets tend to have better sensitivity but require a secondary device with powerful hardware in order to run properly.
Pen displays are graphics tablets with a built-in LCD display. You’ll be able to look down at your tablet while you draw — rather than at your desktop or laptop screen. Otherwise, they’re similar to a standard graphics tablet.
The final consideration for both tablet and stylus options is pressure sensitivity.
In short, the ability for the tablet or the digital pen to respond to pressure helps you draw like you would on paper. With good pressure sensitivity, your equipment can tell the difference between hard strokes and softer, lighter touches.
All of the tablets we’ve listed below are equipped with pressure sensitivity, but keep in mind that the setup you choose will affect the tools you have at your disposal as an artist.
Here are some of the best tablets available today:
Your stylus is your drawing utensil.
When you’re practicing hand lettering, brush lettering, or calligraphy in a traditional medium, you’ll use different brushes, nibs, or pens to create a specific effect.
With a digital stylus, all of those tools are rolled into the stylus you choose and the brush settings you select within your drawing software (more on this below).
This is what makes a stylus so important.
One major consideration with a digital stylus is the pressure sensitivity. If you want maximum control, having both a tablet and a stylus with pressure sensitivity is ideal — but it isn’t required. Many great stylus options don’t have pressure sensitivity built in — and that’s okay.
Here are a few of the best stylus options available on the market:
When you’re taking your creative lettering into a digital medium, the conversation changes from pens and paper to hardware and software.
Now that we’ve talked about hardware (above), what does your software selection look like?
If you’re using a graphics tablet, you won’t need this section because the software you need should be installed on your computer. For individuals who pick up an iPad or Android-based tablet, the software options can be overwhelming.
Here’s our list of the best software apps you should consider for iOS and Android tablets.
We looked at a ton of applications for this section and even consulted with many lettering experts while compiling this list.
Every one of the applications below can help you create wonderful art, but there are two apps that the lettering artists we spoke with recommend above all others: Procreate and Astropad.
Procreate 5 is a flexible and simple-to-use drawing app that makes digital artwork fun and easy.
It comes equipped with a simple interface and powerful features that make it the favorite of top artists all around the world. You can even create your own custom brushes and load them into Procreate so that you have everything you need to produce your next masterpiece.
Astropad is a functional app that allows you to use your iPad like a graphics tablet. With Astropad, you can plug your tablet directly into your Mac to achieve lag-free input from your Apple Pencil.
This is a niche solution for Apple users, but it’s an extremely powerful tool for serious artists who need to switch between desktop/laptops and iPads during the creation process.
Every app functions a little differently and offers a different interface for hand lettering and other artistic styles. Many of the apps on the list below are free or can be acquired with minimal expense.
Try as many as you like until you find the app that fits your personal style:
This section is specifically for Procreate and Photoshop users who want to install custom brushes.
You can find hundreds of custom brush designs on Creative Market and Gumroad, but here are a few of our favorites:
No list would be complete without offering some creative lettering resources to help you improve your calligraphy and lettering skills.
Here are some of the best books, podcasts, and YouTube channels to help take your hand lettering to the next level.
Whether you’re looking for advice on how to take your art from hobby to professional or you just want to learn more about lettering, a great podcast can point you in the right direction.
Here’s a roundup of our favorite lettering- and artist- focused podcasts for creative letterers:
Hosted by lettering artist Shelly Kim and watercolorist Emma Witte, the Hobby to Business Podcast is there to help aspiring creatives transform their hobbies into an operational business. This artistic duo covers basic business ideas and provides tips on how to make money with fine art.
Hosted by Tam Love from Lettering Tutorial, this podcast provides a ton of great information about hand lettering and modern calligraphy. If you’re looking to improve your lettering styles, Tam’s podcast can provide key information to help you get there.
Hosted by Stefan Kunz and Lauren Hom, this podcast talks about making a living from art and “making it all work as a modern-day artist”! It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, but it’s a great fit for artists looking to do more with art.
This podcast is also unique for letterers since both hosts are lettering artists. If you want to know what it’s like for a lettering artist to run a business, you’ll gain that perspective right here.
This low-key design podcast takes a casual, people-focused approach to interviews with artists and designers. It’s not always about design, but it provides a unique window into the lives of artistic professionals around the world.
Lettering artists can gain insights from seasoned artists and have some fun doing it!
Though this podcast is now dormant, it featured a run of excellent interviews with letterers and artists in 2017. Even though the content is a few years old, the lessons from these creative professionals are timeless.
Learning the art of lettering can be hard, but books are a fantastic resource to help you get started. This is true even if you’re trying to master digital hand lettering.
Take a look at some of the best books on the market right now for lettering aficionados of all skill levels:
This highly-rated best seller has helped thousands of beginning letterers get a grasp on the finer points of typography and letterforms.
Part practice book part instruction manual, this is a great beginner’s guide for anyone looking to get started with creative lettering. (Also a great gift idea!)
Shelly Kim’s recent book on digital hand lettering isn’t just about nailing your technique. It’s about taking that technique into a digital format.
Shelly provides readers with step-by-step instructions to help lettering artists digitize their existing process and create new, exciting lettering styles along the way.
This incredible book by lettering artist and author Jessica Hische shows readers how a world-class letterer transforms basic shapes and rough sketches into finished art.
Chocked full of information for aspiring letterers and designers, this book is an excellent behind-the-scenes look at the artistic process for hand letterers of all skill levels.
Compiled by the creative minds behind GoodType, this coffee table book is an excellent showcase of modern lettering styles.
Letterers looking to study finished designs will find beautiful works of art hidden between these pages that can serve both as inspiration and reference to modern creative lettering.
Written by iPad lettering artist Liz Kohler Brown, this book is all about digital hand lettering using the iPad and Procreate (our recommended hardware and software solutions)!
Readers will find a ton of tips to help them get the most out of their iPad and the Procreate app as they work through their lettering journey in a digital format.
In the world of video broadcast, there aren’t as many professional lettering artists as you’d think. Every YouTuber on our list has a channel filled with lettering tutorials, walkthroughs, reviews, and more.
Find your next lettering guide right here:
Learning from lettering doesn’t have to be about watching how-to-draw YouTube videos or following DIY tutorials in books.
You can also find a huge number of lettering workshops to supplement your artistic endeavors through websites like Skillshare and CreativeLive.
Here are a few of our favorite highlights:
And there you have it! That wraps up our ultimate list of the best digital typography resources.
We tried to be thorough, but there are still a ton of great resources out there!
No matter which lettering tutorial you use or which hand lettering expert you choose to follow, don’t forget that Paperlike can be a welcome addition to your exploration in digital creative lettering.
Grab yours today, and be sure to check out our other hand lettering resources while you practice your letterforms!