Thus, radical innovations like Kurt Schwitters’ Systemschrift, (a phoenetic alphabet from 1927), are doomed to fail. The paradigm shift-wrought by the personal computer, Postscript and desktop publishing-should have had a massive impact on the shapes of our typographic characters, just as the advances of the World Wide Web further changed the way we viewed words (even though letterforms change at the pace of the most conservative reader).

When Typography Speaks Louder Than Words.

Hands On The Sigmund Freud Typeface: Making A Font.

It was written in defense of her typefaces, whose elemental shapes-designed with the strictures of the early HP laser printer in mind-challenged the commonly held notions of what made typefaces legible. This quote was used as a type specimen in Emigre magazine in the late 1980’s by Zuzana Licko. It has been said that “we read best what we read most”. It was written in defense of her typefaces, whose elemental shapes-designed with the strictures of the early HP laser printer in mind-challenged the commonly held notions of what made typefaces legible.įirst a question (or perhaps a Freudian jab at your subconscious): What does this shape represent?Ĭould it be a trowel, a duck, an ornamental motif, or a seed-pod? I know, Aladdin’s Lamp! What if I told you it was an alphabetic character? What alphabet would you assign to it? Cham? Telugu? Perhaps it has the cursive quality of South Asian letterforms, created on bamboo strips (or palm leaves) and written with the pen held in one’s fist… doesn’t it?

All rights reserved.It has been said that “we read best what we read most”. Data © of The Monotype Corporation plc/Type Solutions Inc. Typeface © of The Monotype Corporation plc. It looks remarkably like the famous Cloister Black designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1904. Little is known about the history of Old English Text, provided here by Monotype Typography, but it has been beautifully made. The Frakturs have an x that looks like an r with a mysterious disease, and the Blackletters have fiddly bits in the middle like those you see in this Old English Text.

There are two main kinds of what people tend to call Gothic letters: the German Frakturs and the English Blackletter.

Old english letters font james