Learning the calligraphy alphabet is incredibly exciting, until budding calligraphers run into an unexpected question: what about connecting letters together?!
Learning to connect letters correctly is a natural step in learning to write entire words. In this post, we’re teaching you:
In all writing styles, the way letters are connected has a huge impact on the style and legibility of the final writing. These techniques can also be applied to cursive writing and hand lettering.
Letter connections are the strokes that join one letter to the next in calligraphy. Smooth letter connections are written with a consistent stroke angle and exit height. Inconsistent connections result in words that are choppy, uneven or difficult to read.
Instead of one writing with continuous movement, a calligrapher learns to slow down and to create words using a set of intentional and individual strokes. Consistency matters in every element of calligraphy (including connecting letters), and it starts with mastering these basic calligraphy strokes.
Get instant access to our free basic strokes worksheet. We’ll also send you an ebook with additional tips!
Tip: Keep your old worksheets, especially your first practice attempts. It’s fun and motivating to check your progress when you compare your old worksheets with your current skill!
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The easiest way to connect two letters in calligraphy is to match the exit stroke of the first letter to the entrance stroke of the next. Let’s break it down.
Letters of the lowercase alphabet often start with an entrance stroke and end with an exit stroke. These strokes are the easiest way to “link up” letters.
We’ve highlighted the entrance and exit strokes here in the word “Sunday” as an example:
This principle works really well as long as your letter has an entrance stroke that matches up with the exit stroke of the previous letter. However, not all letters connect as easily. We’ll walk you through some tricky connections (and how to handle them) in a minute after looking at capital letters.
Some capital letters are intentionally left unconnected from the lowercase letters that follow. Certain capital letters create awkward letterforms when connected, including letters that end on the left side, above the x-height, or where legibility would be compromised.
For example, when uppercase letters end…
Scroll through examples below to observe this:
Even with those capital letters that end at or slightly below the baseline, you can choose not to connect them to any following letter for a more modern or playful effect.
Our signature trick: When following a capital letter, starting the entrance stroke slightly below the baseline pulls the lowercase letters visually closer to the capital.
This tutorial shares tips from entire course on lettering connections. It’s available (along with 20+ other courses) inside our membership Calligraphy Together.
Our Letter Connections course has:
In addition to the course, there have also been 150+ posts and 400+ comments in the community feed about letter connections. This is where members share progress, ask questions and share their lettering journeys together.
Some letter connections are more difficult than others. Most tricky connections are caused by a final stroke that ends in an awkward position for the next letter’s entrance.
We’ve taught calligraphy to 60,000+ students here at Loveleigh Loops and we’ve seen which which connections cause the most trouble. Let’s look at a few groups of letters that pose challenges for students at the beginning of their lettering journeys.
Tip: We’re going to reference the lines of a guide sheet by name. If you’re not familiar with these terms (like the “header line,” for example), then you can see them here:
To keep this post brief, we’re only touching briefly on tricky connections. Sadly we can only go so deep in a single blog post! But we explore each problem area in depth in our Letter Connections course inside Calligraphy Together:
Calligraphers lift their pens between every stroke. When writing ascending stem loops, this means that the loop isn’t written in a continuous motion with the stroke before it.
See this below with the word “hello” written in both cursive and calligraphy. In cursive writing, the “l” is written continuously from the letter “e.” In calligraphy, we lift our pen and begin the stem loop at the headerline.
Here you can also see the correct vs incorrect form for an “l” (see a full alphabet critique in this guide):
While connecting to lowercase ovals is easy for most combinations, it poses a challenge for letters that end at the headerline. Although lowercase “v” or “w” end with a mini-underturn, it’s not the most natural transition since the line is so short.
In order to connect to ovals, try to extend the underturn slightly further down. While you don’t need to go down all the way to the baseline, it’s important to give yourself a little space to come back up.
This way, you can create a partial entrance stroke and a smooth line into the oval.
Here are some examples below of oval connections:
The compound curve is one of the most difficult strokes for beginners to write. The most difficult combination is when two compound curves connect together, like in the word “any” (the n+y).
Beginners should pause and lift their pens off the paper every time it touches the base or headerline. This allows you to reposition your hand and regain muscle control. This makes a big difference!
Some of the most common letter groups in English are “ing,” “er” and “th.” Let’s look at the standard way of connecting these letters, as well as some stylistic variations.
The letter combination “ing” is very common in English, and connecting the standard letterforms follows the entrance/exit stroke connection.
The underturn of the “i” connects directly into the overturn of the “n.” Then, the overturn of the “n” stops halfway between the baseline and the headerline to connect to the oval of the “g.”
Scroll below to see variations of the “ing” connection (we’ll explain connection variations in a minute):
The e+r letter connection is one of the most common in English and also difficult for beginners because the “e” exit stroke must flow directly into the long entrance stroke of the “r.”
The letter “e” is written with a variation of the underturn. It requires good pressure control for consistency, especially when extending into the letter “r.”
Tip: Instead of writing the e+r connection in one stroke, consider pausing at the baseline and lifting your pen. This allows beginners to enter the long “r” entrance stroke with more control.
Scroll through these examples to see variations of the “er” connection.
The letter combination “t+h” is very common in English, so it’s helpful to learn several ways to connect these letters together.
Here are 3 different connection combinations:
Each of these connection options gives calligraphers control of style, spacing and expression.
Connecting letters is like learning any element of calligraphy: through dedicated practice and repetition, calligraphers build muscle memory and see steady improvement over time. Understanding the best practices expedites the learning process. When it comes to letter connections, avoid shaky connecting lines, don’t connect at the baseline and keep space between letters even.
All lines in calligraphy should be smooth and thin, including the connecting lines between letters. For beginners, learning to control the pressure with their brush pens or pointed pens is the biggest initial challenge. It’s often caused by speed and lack of muscle memory:
In cursive writing, letters are connected at the baseline. In calligraphy, however, the entrance stroke lifts away from the baseline, connecting letters halfway through the x-height.
When letters are connected at the baseline, they’re too close together. It becomes difficult to read, and the characteristic ease and flow of calligraphy is lost.
In this example, we’ve written January with connections at the baseline. Especially in the transition from lowercase n to u, the cramped look becomes very apparent.
The space between each letter is easily overlooked, but it has a huge impact on legibility and consistency. Even letter spacing in calligraphy is maintained by keeping the width of each entrance stroke consistent across all letters in a word.
Bonus tip: Don’t distort the letter forms when connecting. Especially in combinations such as lowercase o to r: it’s natural to want to slightly change to downstroke in the r to fill up some of the white space between the letters (but resist this urge!).
Uneven spacing can be a stylistic choice, but it’s something to explore after you’ve already mastered the basic forms. When you start exploring your own style, you can break any of these traditional rules (more on this below).
We highly recommend using a practice sheet with guidelines to force yourself to stick to the proper forms. This way, you can trace the guidelines and make sure you stick to the letter shapes.
There are many variations and stylistic choices that a calligrapher can apply to their letter connections, from traditional scripts styles like Copperplate to modern styles like brush lettering. These six letter connection ideas add interest, variation and complexity to any composition.
The expanded lettering style is achieved by stretching the connecting strokes between letters. This effect is light, feathery and fun. The secret to achieving this look without making the letters illegible is expanding the connecting elements alone and never the letterforms themselves.
When to expand your letter connections: Try this technique on a single word or phrase in a composition. Contrast is important for this to have its full effect — when expanded words are placed next to normal calligraphy, you see just how effervescent the words look. When a whole quote is expanded, it doesn’t have that same feathery look. The effect creates a beautiful focal point.
Learn more about this style in our styles overview guide.
The bounce lettering style is a playful effect created by dipping and extending certain strokes above and below their normal resting places.
When it comes to connecting letters, this means that connections often dip below the baseline. Notice this effect on the word “Wednesday” written regularly and also in the bounce lettering style:
When to bounce your connections: The bounce lettering technique should be applied to entire words or phrases. If you apply this to a single letter in a word, it would look more like a mistake than a stylistic choice. Try bouncing the focal word in a composition, or an entire quote for a lively feel.
Calligraphy flourishes are decorative elements that make words even more elaborate and embellished. Flourishes are easily added on a descending stem loop (like on the letter “g”). But they can also be added on unexpected letters like the letter “r” by breaking the normal letter connection and adding a flourish instead.
For example, the exit stroke of the letter “m” can be flourished up to the headerline or down to the first descender. Exit stroke flourishes are often applied at the end of a word, bonnecting elements within a word can also be flourished so long as the composition stays balanced.
When to flourish letter connections: Try flourishing the exit stroke of the letter “a” in the center of a word. Consider how the flourish balanced with the other letters. For example, an upwards flourish on the letter “a” in the word “cat” would be imbalanced because of the ascending stem loop of the letter “t.” But a downward flourish on the “a” in the word “car” would be balanced.
Scroll through these flourish formulas for the letter “a” to get ideas. You can learn flourishing with our free flourishing course (worksheets included!).
Modern calligraphers aren’t bound by strict rules, and can choose not to connect every letter in a calligraphy composition. Choosing not to connect certain letters in a word a stylistic choice that creates a playful, organic look in a composition.
When to disconnect letters: Any two letters can be intentionally separated, but consider separating repeating letters (like the “m”s in comments) or a letter with a descending stem loop (like a “p” in the middle of a word). Stick to words that have more than 3 letters so it’s clear that this is a stylistic choice and not just normal handwriting.
Decorative loops are a very common element in modern calligraphy, commonly applied to ovals. A looped connection replaces the standard exit stroke connection with a small circular decorative element.
Loops are considered variations of a letter than their own distinctive elements. Learn more in this tutorial:
Where to add decorative loops: Decorative loops can be applied when connecting the letters “p,” “o” or “r.” Keep loops small enough that they don’t accidentally look like an additional letter or distract from the legibility of the word. Loops should never make writing difficult to read.
The topic of letter loops opens to door to a large discussion of letter variations. Each letter of the alphabet has an unlimited number of variations that can be applied to each stroke, and this includes connecting elements.
Letter variations are a more advanced technique. Here’s an example from our letter variation matrix:
As you practice connecting letters and look at examples online, you may wonder “why does that letter connection look different?!” The answer to that question is that there are endless variations to every letter, as you see here with our letter variations matrix.
Ready to explore letter variations? Download our free Letter Logic worksheet and try it for yourself!
Connecting letters in the correct way makes your calligraphy look elegant and effortless. It’s an important learning point along the road, and we would love to take the rest of this journey with you!
If you’re still here reading, it may be a sign to that you’re ready to invest more in your craft. You can join hundreds of lettering friends in our membership Calligraphy Together 💕 Get instant access to:
Whatever is next for you on your lettering journey, we are so glad that we could be a small step in the learning process for you. Please make yourself at home here at Loveleigh Loops!
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One Response
Very good reference and easily referrable!