Capital letter · 15 of 26
Bubble letter O
Bubble O is a fat ring whose hole, round or oval, is the only thing that makes it an O and not a ball.
- The font
- Modak. Round, puffed up. Free to use, from the catalogue.
- Step by step
- 1Pencil an oval a little taller than it is wide.
- 2Outline it outside and again inside, the same distance from the pencil both ways, so the ring is equally fat all round.
- 3Keep the hole a clear oval in the middle; even a narrow slot reads as an O, a filled one does not.
- 4Shade the ring’s outside at the lower right and the hole’s inner edge at the upper left, and put a highlight at about ten o’clock.
- Watch for
- Outline only the outside and the O becomes a ball, or a fat zero with a slit. Draw the inner outline too, and keep the hole at least a third as wide as the letter.
- Mixed up with
A bubble O with a tall narrow hole reads as a zero; a straight left side turns it into a D, a tail into a Q, and a gap on the right into a C.
- Practise with
- Ocean · Oscar · Olive · Okay
01 / In other fonts
O in 4 more fonts
Bagel Fat One keeps the biggest hole in its O, 32% of the letter’s height across, and Modak the smallest, a slit of 5%. Coiny draws the widest O for its height and Bagel Fat One the narrowest.
02 / To colour in
A page to colour
On US Letter the sheet prints the O 136 mm tall and 130 mm wide, 5.3 by 5.1 inches, with about 141 cm² to colour, its hole about 6 mm across; on A4, 132 by 126 mm. The alphabet sheets print A to Z or your own name.
One page: the O big and hollow in Modak to colour in, and the same O 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 O, 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 O?
The depth of an O is a crescent: around the outside from three o’clock down to seven, and inside the hole from nine up to one.
How do you draw a bubble O that does not look like a doughnut?
Make the hole taller and narrower than the outside, so the ring is fatter at the sides than above and below. A round hole in a round ring is the doughnut.
How do you colour a bubble O?
Colour round the ring, not across it: rings of colour, one inside the other, suit the O better than any other letter.