Calligraphy · Roman Capitals

About Calligraphy · Roman Capitals

A calligraphic guide sheet for Roman capital practice: cap-height and baseline divisions tuned to the classical Trajan-column letter proportions, with vertical guidelines every 8 mm to help align letterforms. Further reading: A practitioner reading list covers the standards lineage in more depth.

Standards lineage

Letter geometry matches the canonical Trajan-column proportions documented by Edward M. Catich in "The Origin of the Serif" (1968).

A short history

Roman capitals were perfected on the Trajan column inscription in 113 AD; Edward Johnston revived their formal study in the early 20th century at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.

Where designers reach for it

• Roman capital practice
• Inscription and signage layout
• Foundation calligraphy teaching
• Stone-carving letter mock-ups

Printing this grid

Every variant on this page is delivered as a vector SVG with physical millimetre dimensions baked into the file, so a compliant printer driver will reproduce it at exact 1:1 scale by default. Choose the sheet size that matches your printer tray, set scaling to 100 % (never "fit to page"), and verify with the calibration check on our how-to-print guide. Buyer's guide: Comparing the major architectural scale rulers can help you pick the right physical scale rule to use over the printed grid.