How do you write an A in bubble letters?
Sketch a thin capital A in pencil, then draw a puffy line around it, keeping the same distance all the way round. Turn the peak into a dome, round off both feet, leave a small triangle-shaped hole above the crossbar, and erase the skeleton once the outline is closed.
- Draw the skeleton. Pencil a plain capital A lightly: two slanted lines meeting at the top and a crossbar a little below the middle.
- Wrap the outside. Start at the left foot and trace up and over the top, about a finger-width away from the skeleton. Let the point become a gentle dome.
- Round both feet. Close each leg with a U-shaped curve so the A stands on two soft pads.
- Cut the tunnel. Draw a rounded arch between the legs, under the crossbar. Keep it narrow; a bubble A stands over a short tunnel, not a wide gap.
- Add the window. Above the crossbar, draw a small rounded triangle. This hole is what makes it read as an A and not a blob.
- Ink and shade. Trace the final line with a marker, erase the pencil, then add a shadow on one side and a white shine near the dome.
What makes an A easy or tricky in bubble letters
The A is tricky because its counter is tiny from the start. As the strokes swell, that triangle shrinks until it closes and the letter becomes a rounded tent. Draw the hole first and puff the strokes around it. A bubble A can carry its crossbar lower than a normal A, which gives the window above it more room.
Lowercase a in bubble letters
Lowercase a has two forms. The lowercase bubble a in the images above is the two-story printed a: a hook on top and a bowl below. It gets crowded when inflated, so keep the bowl wide and the gap under the hook open. The round a taught in school is a circle with a short stick on the right; puffed up, it looks like a fat o with a bump on its side, and it is the easier one to draw freehand.
Cute, 3D and graffiti bubble A
For a cute A, make the dome extra round and use a tiny heart or star as the shine. A 3D bubble A gets a drop shadow on the right and below, on the same side as the rest of the word. In graffiti style the A often leans, one leg kicks out and the crossbar pokes past the sides; the graffiti letter A page shows those versions.
Common mistakes with a bubble A
- Puffing the strokes until the triangle window vanishes, so the letter reads as a tent.
- Setting the crossbar too high, which leaves no space for the hole above it.
- Keeping a sharp point at the top, which clashes with every other round letter in the word.
Printable bubble letter A to color or trace
Each letter fills a full A4 page (choose "fit to page" to print on US Letter), so it is big enough to color, trace or cut out for a banner. Download the uppercase A–Z PDF, the lowercase a–z PDF or the numbers 0–9 PDF, and print only the pages you need. More sheets are on printable bubble letters.