fonts/cc-by-sa/knowledge/glossary/terms/lettering/content.md

Lettering is the art of drawing letters rather than writing them, and is therefore distinct from handwriting, calligraphy, and typography.

Lettering by Jessica Hische

Although lettering is unlike typography in that no characters are fixed, most lettering artists employ a uniform construction to their letterforms. With the use of OpenType features such as alternate characters, typography can also sometimes resemble lettering. However, “true” lettering is created for a specific use case; i.e., a drawing of a particular word or phrase.