Lowercase letter · 1 of 26
Lowercase bubble letter a
A small bubble a is either an o with a short stem on its right, or the two-storey a with a little hood over its bowl; either way its bowl keeps one hole.
- The font
- Modak. Round, puffed up. Free to use, from the catalogue.
- Step by step
- 1Pencil a small circle with a short line down its right side, or a hook over a little bowl.
- 2Puff bowl and stem out together, letting them merge on the right.
- 3Leave a hole in the bowl; in the two-storey a, keep the slit under the hood too.
- 4Darken the stem’s outer edge and the bowl’s base, and leave a light patch at the bowl’s upper left.
- Watch for
- The bowl of a two-storey a is small, and its hole fills in first. If it keeps closing, switch to the one-storey a, whose bowl takes up the whole letter.
- Mixed up with
With its hole shut a bubble a reads as an e or a blob; a one-storey a without its stem is an o, and with a tall stem a d.
- Practise with
- apple · ant · art · awesome
01 / In other fonts
a in 4 more fonts
Coiny keeps the biggest hole in its a, 21% of the letter’s height across, and Modak the smallest, 6%. Coiny draws the widest a for its height and Bagel Fat One the narrowest.
02 / To colour in
A page to colour
On US Letter the sheet prints the a 96 mm tall and 93 mm wide, 3.8 by 3.7 inches, with about 71 cm² to colour, its hole about 6 mm across; on A4, 103 by 101 mm. The alphabet sheets print A to Z or your own name.
One page: the a big and hollow in Modak to colour in, and the same a in the other fonts under it. Crayons, markers or paint; or trace it.
In the print dialog choose Save as PDF to keep a file. The sheet fills one page of US Letter at full size.
Preview · 1 page · Modak
03 / Questions
Bubble a, answered
A 3D bubble letter is its outline drawn twice, the copy a little down and to the right, the corners joined.
Where does the depth go on a 3D bubble a?
Depth on a lowercase a hangs off the stem’s right side and the round base of the bowl, plus a sliver in the hole’s top left.
Should a bubble a have one storey or two?
Both work: Modak, Titan One, Bagel Fat One and Rubik Bubbles draw two storeys, with a hood over the bowl, and Coiny draws one, a round bowl and a stem, the easier of the two by hand.
How do you colour a bubble a?
Fill the bowl around its hole first, then the stem down the right; in a two-storey a the hood is a separate little area.