How do you make a U in bubble letters?
Pencil a U with straight, parallel sides and a round bottom, then trace around it at an even distance. Cap the top of each side with a half-circle, keep the bottom curve smooth and full, and cut a narrow pocket that reaches well down into the letter. Then go over it in marker.
- Draw the horseshoe. Pencil two parallel lines joined at the bottom by a round curve. Keep the sides upright, not leaning.
- Trace the outside. Outline down the left side, around the bottom and up the right side in one smooth path.
- Cap the tops. Close each side with a round end. Both should finish at the same height.
- Cut the pocket. Draw a narrow U inside, reaching about two-thirds of the way down. Its floor should be round, not pointed.
- Check the base. The curve at the bottom should be as thick as the sides. A thin base makes the U look like it could snap.
- Finish. Ink, erase and shade the outside of the curve.
What makes a U easy or tricky in bubble letters
The U is easy to draw but easy to blur into its neighbors. Lean the sides and it becomes a V; puff the bottom too much and the pocket gets shallow, so the letter reads as an O with a dent. Straight, parallel sides and a pocket that goes deep enough keep it a U. The base curve is where uneven thickness shows most, so draw it in two light passes.
Lowercase u in bubble letters
Lowercase u is a short horseshoe that usually has a small stem on its right side, running down to the baseline. In bubble letters that stem shows as a rounded bump at the bottom right. It is an n turned upside down, so in words like "bun" or "nut" check that the u opens upward and the n opens downward.
Cute, 3D and graffiti bubble U
A cute bubble U can become a smiling cup, a magnet with colored tips or a lucky horseshoe. In 3D, the shadow drops into the pocket as well as along the outside, which makes the hollow look deep. Graffiti U's sometimes raise one side above the other or flick the right side into an arrow. The outline U is a nice shape for rainbow stripes, and there are more sheets on coloring pages.
Common mistakes with a bubble U
- Tilting the sides inward so the U turns into a V.
- Cutting the pocket too shallow, so the letter looks like a closed O.
- Letting one side end higher than the other.
Printable bubble letter U 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.