A history of alphabets from around the world

The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering by Frederic W. Goudy Chapter 9: The Qualities of Lettering IN PREPARING this manual the author has endeavored, as far as possible, to present the subject in the order that appeared to him most helpful to the student of lettering, and it may seem to some that he has given undue space to the beginnings of types & printing. His reason is that as practically all the drawn lettering employed today is to be printed as type or in combination with types, & as the lettering should be in exact harmony with those types, no better models for drawn letters can be found than fine types based on the letters of the handwritten books. Before the year 1500, letters were chiefly pen forms & were pen-produced, but though they did influence the shape of the forms we now employ, it is no longer necessary, except in the occasional formal written book, to carry the qualities inherent in pen forms into letters produced by other methods and for other purposes. It is to be understood in all that follows regarding lettering that formal writing is not meant, but instead, lettering intended for book covers, title pages, advertisements, types, etc., and such lettering is properly 'drawn,' not 'written.' One writer has gone so far as to maintain that drawn letters are wrong and written ones only are right. He does admit that the Roman capitals of the Trajan inscription are not entirely pen forms. If there is one exception, why not others? There is no doubt that the capitals of the Trajan Column were first painted in before cutting, but that is hardly writing. In formal writing, where the actual work of the artist is seen and read, neither reproduced nor duplicated by mechanical process, the lines should be forn1ed without sketching, retouching, or correcting. Each letter should be simple [having no unnecessary parts], distinctive, and legible, and should show, too, the use of the pen. But if the work is to be reproduced by a mechanical process in which any corrections or retouchings will not be discoverable, there can be no good reason for omitting or neglecting such corrections if greater clearness or better appearance is gained. *Formal writing is adequately dealt with in the volume, Writing, Illumination and Lettering, by Edward Johnston. Macmillan & Co, New York. The author does not feel that formal writing should be reproduced by process at all; it is in the actual forming of the letters that the personality of the craftsman is strongly expressed, and this personal quality is practically lost when the work is duplicated by process, which takes no account of the varying degrees of color, etc., and the reproduction presents only a flat & lifeless copy. In this handbook, formal writing* is touched upon as a matter of historical interest only. Continue to page 2

Sign up for our weekly newsletter Email: The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering by Frederic W. Goudy Introduction What Letters Are Letters in General The Development of the Roman Capital Letters Before Printing The National Hands The Development of Gothic The Beginnings of Types The Qualities of Lettering Some Practical Considerations Notes on the Plates Greek alphabet Hebrew alphabet Sign language alphabet Cherokee alphabet Russian alphabet Phonetic alphabet Braille alphabet Egyptian alphabet Cyrillic alphabet Aramaic alphabet Morse code alphabet Runic alphabet