Capital letter · 17 of 26
Bubble letter Q
Bubble Q is a fat O with a short, fat tail across its lower right that sticks out past the ring.
- The font
- Modak. Round, puffed up. Free to use, from the catalogue.
- Step by step
- 1Begin with an O and a short slant crossing its lower right.
- 2Thicken ring and tail as one shape, with a round end on the tail.
- 3Keep the hole of the O open, and let the tail stick out well beyond the ring, or it is lost in it.
- 4Put shadow on the ring’s lower right and under the tail, and shine on the ring at the top left.
- Watch for
- A tail drawn inside the ring disappears once the ring swells, leaving an O. Start the tail inside the hole and end it outside the ring.
- Mixed up with
Lose the tail and a bubble Q is an O; turn the tail into a bar inside and it begins to resemble a G.
- Practise with
- Queen · Quiz · Quinn · Quiet
01 / In other fonts
Q in 4 more fonts
Bagel Fat One keeps the biggest hole in its Q, 23% of the letter’s height across, and Modak the smallest, a slit of 5%. Modak draws the widest Q for its height and Bagel Fat One the narrowest.
02 / To colour in
A page to colour
On US Letter the sheet prints the Q 150 mm tall and 142 mm wide, 5.9 by 5.6 inches, with about 155 cm² to colour, its hole about 7 mm across; on A4, 145 by 137 mm. The alphabet sheets print A to Z or your own name.
One page: the Q big and hollow in Modak to colour in, and the same Q 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 Q, 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 Q?
A Q takes the O’s depth, outside at the bottom right and inside the hole at the top left, then a strip under the tail.
Where does the tail of a bubble Q go?
Across the bottom right of the ring, or hanging under it. In all five fonts here it dips below the baseline, deepest in Coiny, then Bagel Fat One; only Modak’s also reaches past the ring on the right.
How do you colour a bubble Q?
Give the tail a colour of its own: it is small, and a second colour is the quickest way to show it is there.