Tools and Techniques of Show Card Writing - by James Gurney

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Tools and Techniques of Show Card Writing

James Gurney<br>Jul 17, 2026

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Show-card writing, which I introduced a couple days ago, was done mainly with the pen and brush.

A lot of specialists liked the versatility of dip pens. In fact, the Speedball line of pens was invented for show card work, and the company has been making them since 1899.

Speedball pen nibs are detachable nibs made with a variety of flat, square, round, and oval tips of various sizes for lettering. They fit into a pen holder and dip into black or colored ink. In high school, I lettered a lot of wedding invitations and menus for print shops, so I practically had these nibs attached to my fingertips.

But many of the professional show card writers of the golden age used rigger brushes. These are long sable brushes with round ferrules. Their tips can be flattened out to make a stroke of even width in the pull direction, and a thin stroke when moved sideways.<br>Used properly, this tool can make most of the letterforms with a single stroke for each part of the letter. As far as I’m aware, modern rigger brushes aren’t the same as the old show card riggers; most of the modern riggers are intended more for painting thin lines.<br>In show card work, the letters were not outlined and filled in. That would be too slow. Even a hundred years ago, a writer had to produce a lot of work at very low pay rates. “Quantity first,” said William Hugh Gordon (though his quality was the best, too).

A rigger is held between the thumb and first finger in such a way that the brush could be rotated during a stroke. That turn of the brush is necessary to make the “Block” and “Gothic” styles (back then, “Gothic” meant an even-width, sans-serif font, not Old English or Blackletter letterforms).<br>You can wrap the ferrule with waxed string to improve the grip. The fingertips should be held far down the ferrule—some held it even closer to the brush tip than the example above.

The brush is pulled toward the writer with a movement of the fingers, as Charles Strong demonstrated in his book. Strong uses a bridge, but other writers balanced their hand on their last two fingers and did away with the hand rest.

Here’s a student setup, from Blair.

The paint was water-based and often prepared from dry pigments by the artist. The best white came by grinding white lead—a potentially toxic practice. The binder was mucilage, a plant glue also used as a wallpaper paste, a paper glue, and a gum for envelopes. You can still get that too, but I haven’t experimented with it as a paint binder. You can substitute tube gouache and get good results.<br>Let’s take a look at some samples and alphabets. These were created by the show card writer William Hugh Gordon for his classic 1918 book Lettering for Commercial Purposes.

Each alphabet takes on the character of the tool that constructed it. These calligraphic letterforms were made with a broad, flat tipped tool held at a 45 degree angle. Such letters have been made by a reed pen, a quill pen, or a steel nib. But in this case he’s using a rigger brush held at 45 degrees.

Gordon classifies such an alphabet under the broad category “text” by which he means the old-style or thick-and-thin letters made through the centuries by normal writing instruments.

By rotating the rigger brush in the fingers, a writer can achieve a constant-width or “gothic” alphabet using single strokes. Note the fully open counters on the “o’s,” the high and low crossbars on the “F” and “A,” and the narrow vertical letters, such as “H” and “N.” These eccentricities were popular throughout the teens and ‘20s.

It takes multiple strokes of the brush to construct blocky letters, but in Gordon’s hands, it’s fast and even.

With a blunt-tipped brush or one of the Speedball oval nibs, you can get this fun poster style. This look is often associated with commercial graphics of the 1920s, such as that of F.G. Cooper.<br>Here’s a short video that takes you into a factory that makes pen nibs.

(Direct link to video) Factory tour of the Speedball pen nibs.

Free Resources to Learn More

There are many vintage books on the subject, and you can get downloads for free from Google Books and Archive.org. Here are some recommendations:

Lettering for Commercial Purposes, William Hugh Gordon, 1918<br>A Show at Sho’ Cards, by Atkinson, 1879<br>Principles and Practice of Show-Card Writing by Blair, 1922.<br>Druggists’ and Dispensers’ Practical Show Card Instructor, by W. A. Thompson, 1909<br>Effective Show-Cards by August Reupke, 1898.<br>100 Alphabets for the Show Card Writer, 1909.<br>Sign & Show Card Writing, Chas. Butterworth, 1899.<br>Modern Show Card Lettering and Design, by Thompson, 1903.<br>The Art of Show Card Writing by Charles Strong, 1907.<br>Instructions on Modern Show Card Writing, by J.G. Bissell, 1913<br>The Practical Phrases of Show Card Writing, St. Louis, 1922.<br>Fairchild’s Rapid Letterer and Show Card Maker, Sidney...