A history of alphabets from around the world
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A history of alphabets from around the world | |
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The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering by Frederic W. Goudy Chapter 9: The Qualities of Lettering, page 2 Collections of alphabets removed from their original'habitats, early stone-cut inscriptions, manuscript books, etc., do not always present adaptable forms upon which to found an individual style. Such letters while entirely suitable for use for some specific place or purpose might mislead the beginner, until he has learned something of the history and development of letters, into mistaking mannerisms of the scribe for the essentials of structure. For this reason, the pattern alphabets presented here are, for the most part, type forms, since they are the natural and inevitable materialized letters of the scribes, that is, handwriting divested of the scribes' vagaries and whimsicalities, conceived as forms cut in metal, simplified and formalized to meet new requirements and new conditions of use. They are simple shapes to be modified & given new expressions of beauty just as they themselves were adapted and simplified from the forms of far-off times. And since nearly all lettering is intended to be used as type or in connection with types, hand lettering enters to an appreciable degree within the limitations imposed by type. Lettering based on or suggested by accepted type forms does not deny the artist ample opportunity to shape his letters more freely or space them more precisely than fixed and implacable metal types allow, since he may, by some slight adjustment or modication of the shapes of his model letters, persuade his forms to accommodate themselves to each other in a manner almost impossible with ready-made types. The use of these type models as a foundation tends also to keep the craftsman's rendition of them clear of any excrescences, meaningless lines, or additions not necessary to their fundamental or essential elements; neither will their use as patterns in any way preclude the thought of beauty to be attained by the perfectly legitimate variations that good taste & common sense may dictate. Well selected and carefully drawn type forms, copied without radical changes of shapes, will often be found to appeal to the artistic sense and add to the decorative value of the page where used, to a degree not always attained by prim types, since the artist's handling of line will give variety, a quality of life, and a freedom seldom found in types ready to one's hand. Yet slavish copying of the examples given is not recommended [except so far as is necessary to familiarize oneself with their structure]; they are patterns to be studied, that the principles of form and construction underlying each specimen may be discovered. Each one drawn ought to convey one clear idea, and one idea only-what letter it is-so that the eye need not stop to disentangle the essential form from any eccentricities of handling, nor be drawn to the conceit of a craftsman intent on a display of his own skill at the expense of the work he is expected to embellish. It is the personal quality he injects into his work, not freakish variations or unnecessary additions to his pattern letters, that will determine its character. Continue to page 3 |
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 |