A printable graffiti alphabet is a different artefact from a finished piece. Its job is usually one of three: tracing practice, colouring pages for younger artists, or a quick reference sheet to work from.
Pick styles that survive one colour
Most graffiti styles depend on colour for readability. Printed in black and white, a spray style with overspray turns into noise and a gradient fill becomes flat grey. The styles that hold up are the ones where the letterform itself carries the information.
- Block and blockbuster letters are the most reliable. Squared strokes and clear counters survive any reduction.
- Bubble letters work well as outlines, because the letter shape is unambiguous and there is no detail to lose.
- Stencil letters are already designed as flat shapes, so they print cleanly — the bridges are part of the design.
- Spray, distressed and gradient-heavy styles are the worst choices for print. The texture that makes them interesting at full size becomes dirt at letter height.
Outlines, not fills
If the printout is for tracing or colouring, you want the outline and nothing else. A filled letter cannot be traced through and cannot be coloured in, and a filled letter also uses several times as much ink.
Set the depth and shadow controls to zero for print. A block shadow is the first thing to turn into a grey smear when the piece is small or the printer is cheap.
Setting up the page
- Pick a square canvas if you are printing a single letter — the letter will fill the page better than on a wide canvas.
- Leave a margin. Inkjets cannot print to the edge, and a letter that runs off the paper looks like a mistake rather than a design.
- Export at the highest resolution available. A printed A4 page still wants around 2000 pixels across to keep the outline crisp.
- If you are printing a full alphabet, keep every letter on the same canvas size and the same baseline so the pages can be compared or stacked.
Trace the printed outline a few times, then put the printout away and draw the letter from memory. The printout is scaffolding — the goal is the skeleton in your hand, not the sheet.
Using printables to practise properly
There is one habit that makes traced practice actually work: trace the letter, then immediately draw the same letter freehand beside it. The comparison is what teaches you, not the tracing.
The second habit is to vary the treatment rather than the letter. Print one letter and work it up in three different styles by hand — a bubble version, a blockbuster version and a handstyle version. You will learn more about construction from one letter in three styles than from three letters in one.
Getting a clean outline out of the generator
The generator exports both PNG and SVG, and either works for print. PNG at default settings exports at twice the canvas size, which is usually enough for A4. SVG is the better choice if you want to scale the letter up to fill a larger sheet without any softening, since it is real vector artwork rather than a picture of one.
For tracing, switch the surface to Transparent before exporting, set the shadow to zero, and turn the letter weight up slightly — a heavier outline is much easier to see through paper than a hairline.
Questions
What style of graffiti letters prints best?
Block, blockbuster, bubble and stencil letters. They carry their structure in the letterform itself, so they survive being printed in one colour. Textured and gradient-heavy styles lose most of their character in print.
Should printable graffiti letters be filled or outlined?
Outlined, if the purpose is tracing or colouring. A filled letter cannot be traced through and leaves no room for colour. Outlines also use far less ink.