The Masgrimes Lining Triangle

Quickly and accurately line a full set of pencil guidelines in a variety of x-heights for all your calligraphy projects with the Masgrimes Lining Triangle.

Find your Masgrimes Lining Triangle at:

A quick demonstration

Origin of the lining triangle

These kinds of tools are generally referred to as “lettering angles.” It’s not a particularly complicated concept; penmen have been struggling to create consistent guidelines for as long as the art of writing has been around. As a young calligrapher, I was frustrated by the complexity of the Ames Lettering Guide and wished for a simple solution for drawing guidelines for my Engrosser’s Script.

In 2018, I was generously gifted a lettering angle by my penman friend, Ritchie Wei, and I became fascinated by the history behind it. These tools have been made in many shapes and sizes over the last two centuries (maybe longer), but every version I could find had the same issue when lining consecutive sets of lines for multi-line designs. If the bottom hole from each set is spaced evenly from the edge of the tool, there is no accounting for lining at different sizes and continuous ruling is not easy to produce.

I set out to design a lining triangle offering this improvement of my own, and I am very proud of the result. By utilizing the edge of the tool as the first hole in each set, the ruler is simply moved to the last line to produce a continuous layout.

The Masgrimes Lining Triangle is an elegant, minimalist solution to this specific problem that all penmen experience at some point or another and a wonderful addition to every contemporary pen artist’s toolkit.

Key features of the Masgrimes Lining Triangle:

Graduated marking holes for calligraphy x-heights from 3-8mm.
A 55° angle for drawing Roundhand slant lines.
A 52° angle for drawing Spencerian slant lines.
An innovative 5-hole design utilizing the edge of the tool as the sixth line.
High-quality acrylic allows you to see through the tool while lining.
A minimal, unobtrusive, portable design that fits elegantly into your toolkit.
Proudly designed & manufactured in the United States of America. 🇺🇸

Get creative!

Try combining different sets of holes to create additional guideline schemes, kick the triangle up on one corner and use it to ink the crossbar of your minuscule “t,” or spin the triangle to the third (top) angle and produce 73° angled slant lines for a more upright script.

Use the hashtag #LiningTriangle to find out how other calligraphers around the world are using their Masgrimes Lining Triangle on Instagram.