What the guide lines are for

The lines on the writing surface show where your letters sit, not how big they must be.

The lower line is the baseline — where the body of a letter rests. The upper line marks the height of a lowercase body, like the top of an a or an o.

They are a guide, not a box

This is the part people get wrong. You are not being asked to fit inside the lines.

• The tail of a g, j, p, q or y is meant to drop below the baseline.
• The stem of a b, d, h, k, l or t is meant to rise above the upper line.
• Capitals stand taller than the upper line too.

If everything you write sits squeezed between the two lines, the font comes out looking cramped and uniform, because that is not how your hand moves on paper.

What they are actually for

Your letters arrive at different moments, sometimes on different days. The lines give every letter a shared floor, so an n written on Tuesday sits level with an n written on Friday. Without a common baseline, letters wander up and down a line of text.

If you ignore them entirely

Nothing breaks. Inkling measures your letters and lines them up as best it can. But a letter written far above or below the baseline can end up floating in the finished font — see Letters sit too high or too low.

Write your normal size

The surface is large so it fits every hand, including big ones. It is not asking you to fill it. See Writing at your natural size.