Alphabet Letter Posters

How to Choose and Hang Your Alphabet Posters

Classic Serif or Modern Sans-Serif?

Every letter is available in two fonts. The classical one is a serif, with thick and thin strokes and fine finishing strokes in the tradition of book typography: it suits wood, antique furniture and full bookshelves. The modern one is a geometric sans-serif with even strokes and round forms, closer to Bauhaus-era lettering: it sits naturally among minimalist posters and black and white prints. For a word or a set of initials, keep the same font throughout so the letters read as one piece.

Initials, Names and Words

• A child's initial: above a crib, on a bedroom door or next to a growth chart. Our kids and nursery posters have more ideas for the same room.
• A birth gift: the baby's first letter, a gift that outlasts the baby years. See also our baby gift posters.
• A couple: two initials side by side, for a wedding, an anniversary or a first home together.
• A word or a name: HOME, LOVE or a first name in a row of frames. Each letter is a separate poster, so add every letter to your cart and set the quantity to 2 for a letter used twice, like the two Ls in LILY.
• A single letter: in an entryway or a home office, as a quiet graphic accent.

Which Size, and How Far Apart?

Letter posters come in four portrait sizes: 21 x 30 cm, 30 x 40 cm, 40 x 50 cm and 50 x 70 cm. A single initial holds a wall best in 40 x 50 or 50 x 70 cm. For a word, choose the same size and frame for every letter and leave 3 to 5 cm between frames: four letters in 30 x 40 cm span about 1.35 m, right for the wall above a sofa or a bed.

Every poster is printed on thick archival paper and ships unframed or in a black metal, white oak or natural oak frame: you only pay for the frame, the framing itself is free.

Where Our Letters Come From

The 26 capitals on these posters descend from Phoenician signs of around 1050 BCE, which the Greeks adapted by adding vowels and the Romans turned into the Latin alphabet; J, U and W only became separate letters between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. We tell the full story, from Proto-Sinaitic script to Gutenberg and digital fonts, in our article on the history of the alphabet and typography. For posters built around whole words rather than single letters, see Sacred Words, a series of French words such as Amour and Poème.