P. 51. Beginners practising large writing may more easily use a thin, or diluted, ink: in small writing this does not show up the faults with sufficient clearness.

P. 59. Quills often have a sort of skin (which tends to make a ragged nib), this should be scraped off the back.

P. 63. Until the simple pen-stroke forms are mastered, the pen should be used without appreciable pressure. With practice one gains sleight of hand (pp. 85, 311), and slightly changing pressures & quick movements on to the corners, or points, of the nib are used. The forms in the best MSS. shew such variations; e.g. the Uncials in fig. 5 appear to have been made with varying pressure (perhaps with a soft reed) & their fine finishing-strokes with the nib-point (comp. forms in fig. 146). Versals likewise shew varying, and sometimes uncertain, structures that suggest a form consisting of strokes other than definite pen strokes. [p-xxv]

P. 64. A nib may be sharpened several times, before it is re-cut, by paring it underneath (fig. a).

Pp. 73 & 81. The thin finishing-strokes of j, & F, G, J, N, are made with the point of the nib—see note p. 63 above.

P. 99. The plan of a paper scale is shewn in fig. b.

P. 109. The dots for lines were often pricked through the edges of the book-sheets which were cut off after ruling (fig. c).

P. 118. The spread or wedge-shaped thin stroke, sometimes very strongly marked, is common in early forms (fig. d).

P. 144. V with stroke & Prescription Take: better (pen) forms of these are shewn in fig. e.

P. 208. Ornamental Letter forms may consist of flourishes, patterns, leaves, flowers, &c. (see fig. f).

Pp. 215–217. Diapering generally means the variegation, figuring, or flowering, of a plain or patterned surface, with a finer pattern (see fig. 191a). Some diagrams of simple patterns (g–g² from modern cantagalli ware) are shewn in fig. g. Note: the more solid penwork line-fillings in figs. 87, 126, make effective framing borders (see fig. h).

Pp. 219–220. Note: the principle of breaking straight or long lines, mentioned in regard to background edges (p. 190), and illustrated in the line-finishings (fig. 126) and flourishes (fig. 79), is related to branching out and is re-creative, whereas the prolonged line is tiresome (see figs. k, k¹, & comp. k²).

P. 249. The B & D should be round-shouldered—see note p. 280 below. [p-xxvi]

P. 260. It is sometimes better to make narrow forms than to combine wide ones—example fig. l.

Pp. 270–275.
Pp. 280–288. The large types—“Old Face” (founded on Caslon Type) and “Old French” (modern) respectively—are used in these pages as reference or index letters (not as models).

P. 280. Generally round-shouldered letters have finer and more stable forms than square-shouldered, and generally emphasis should be laid on the strong, thick stroke running obliquely down from left to right (thick oblique down from left to right), while the weak, thin stroke (thin oblique up from left to right) is rather to be avoided (see fig. m). The writing used in the diagrams in this book, considered as a formal hand, shews a little too much of the thin stroke (see p. 485).

P. 324. Commonly letters are made more slender in proportion as they are made larger, and it is generally not desirable (or possible) in practical work to have exactly similar proportions in large and small lettering.

P. 325. g from fig. 173 inaccurate—comp. fig. 173 & see fig. n.

P. 331. Ornamental letters—see note p. 208 above.

P. 481. A small writing is often the most practical—in the matter of speed in reading and less bulk in the MS., besides speed in the writing of it—but it is more difficult for the beginner to write it well and it is apt to lose some of the virtues of formal penmanship (see Fine-pen writing pp. 59, 86, 311, 324, 482).

P. 485. Oblique thin stroke—see note p. 280 above.