Latin letters in the Gothic style. History of Gothic fonts

This is the final lesson in the gothic step by step tutorial series. If you have mastered lowercase letters from, then learning to write uppercase will be quite simple.

For site visitors gothic scripts became available for independent study of capital letters. You can buy them

It is convenient that all the letters of the Gothic alphabet are built from the same elements. Having learned one letter, it will be easier for you to write the rest.

Useful information about Gothic uppercase letters

There are many varieties of capital letters in Gothic. See more examples, note and remember features. Build your collection of capital letters. Once you've learned the basics, you'll be able to combine and improvise with different elements to tailor them to your specific project.

As a rule, uppercase letters protrude significantly beyond the line up and down, unlike lowercase ones. They occupy a square area or even a wide rectangle, and their shapes are rather rounded.

Capitals in Gothic are so different from lowercases for at least two reasons. Most likely they originated from the letters of the uncial script and late Verailles, which have rounded shapes. And of course, in traditional writing, they made it easier to find a new line among the monotonous vertical strokes.

The second reason explains why Gothic capitals look so good in traditional colors: scarlet, blue or green. To highlight especially important paragraphs, gold frames or intricate patterns are drawn around the capital letter. Gothic writing generally encourages experimentation with capital letters, so I hope you'll have a lot of fun with it.

The large rounded forms of capital letters in Gothic form significant gaps within the letter. In all fonts, these gaps are called counters. In Gothic, it is customary to fill the interior space with various decorative elements. It can be thin curls, rhombuses, decorative strokes inside and outside the letter. There is room for experimentation here.

Okay, let's get down to practice.

Gothic script: uppercase Gothic letters from A to Z.

Our capital letters are six pen widths high. This means that if you write with a pen that is 3 mm wide, then the height of the letter will be 18 mm. To create the desired grid for exercises, it is convenient to use one of the grid generators that I wrote about.

Next will be instructions for executing the letter by strokes. Each new stroke is marked in red. Thin strokes are drawn with the left corner of the pen tip. You simply turn the pen handle counterclockwise and draw a line with the left corner of the pen. So we already wrote in in lower case letters.

Here is an example:

The basic rule of Gothic writing is that we always write from top to bottom, or from left to right. In any case, the pen should always move backwards, leaving a stroke behind it. If you move the pen forward, it will cling to the paper, making a terrible rattle and leaving an uneven stroke.

Learning the letter "A", oddly enough, will not help in learning the rest of the letters. However, it's pretty simple. Here is a rather gentle version of the letter. Try a variation with the same legs. Just draw the bottom leg of the right stroke as flat as the first one.

In fact, there are many variations of capital letters in Gothic writing, so once you master this form, experiment.

In this example of the letter "B" there is a fine example of the decoration of the Gothic letter - these are the spikes on the left side of the first vertical stroke (5th and 6th position in the sequence). I hope that you will often use this decoration in your letters. These spikes can have different shapes - straight or curved. Write the one you like best now.

How to draw such a spike: place the pen at a 45º angle so that it is lightly touching the first vertical stroke of the letter and begin to move the pen to the right and immediately down, thus forming a comma. The pen angle should be 45º all the time. Make sure that the lower tip of this comma does not look beyond the borders of the vertical stroke.

The letter "C" is the first round letter of the Gothic alphabet. The first stroke starts just below the full height of the letter. Make a smooth crescent from top left to right down. The beginning is thin in the middle of the expansion and the end is again thin. Raise the pen and return to the top line of the line. Hold the pen at a 45º angle and lean its left corner against the tip of the crescent moon, draw a straight vertical line down, make a little ponytail to the left if you like. Go back up again, turn the pen on its side to draw a thin line down next to the previous one. At the end, return to the top, just below the beginning of the letter, to draw the final element.

If you succeeded, then you are ready for the letters "E", "G", "O", "Q", "T", "U", "V" and "W". Fiction!

This "D" version looks quite luxurious. Start as "B" and then have fun drawing the stroke in the shape of a long ski slope. Try not to bend this stroke forward too much.

The letter "E" is written almost like "C". Make the final tongue not too long. It is easy to get carried away with it and draw longer than necessary. Yes, you may be interested in how to make the end of the tongue forked. Place the pen at a 45º angle and draw a line to the right, on the last millimeter of the line, simply turn the pen handle counterclockwise so that the right corner of the pen rises, and the left one continues to slide along the paper, extending the bottom edge of the line. Once, and you have a forked tongue!

It turns out? I can say that this element will require some practice, but in the end you will succeed.

Also, I will say that after completing the line, you can turn the pen on its side and carefully adjust the forked end with a corner as you need.

"F" is a pretty big letter. It contains two black lines forming a white line between them. All this creates an effective contrast. Make these lines smooth and slightly curved. Avoid sharp corners like in lowercase letters, make them smoother so that the letters look amazing.

"G" is quite simple, it does not even have a forked tongue, as in "E".

I hope "H" is also clear enough, just repeat according to the scheme. The new element here is the flourish on top of the letter. Yes, it ends in the same forked tongue that the "E" had.

Advice: when you draw the first vertical stroke, try to make a slight curve to the left at the very beginning. Then, when you add a flourish to this stroke, you can continue this bend in a horizontal plane. From this flourish will look more elegant.

Did you figure out the "H"? Satisfied with the result? Congratulations! Now you can write "Happy Birthday" in gothic font. Try copying this example:

Just make sure that the top flourish and bottom curl do not protrude more than half the width of the letter itself.

As you can see, the upper flourish and lower curl of the Gothic "J" protrudes beyond the letter much more than in the "I". Please note that "J" is a relatively new letter in the Gothic alphabet, it is only three hundred years old (for Gothic, this is not much). In fact, "J" is an adapted "I", so make the top and bottom strokes much larger so that they differ.

"K" is built in a similar way to "H". Its main feature is a wide diagonal leg. It should be long enough and graceful, but should not protrude too far beyond the letter, so as not to touch the adjacent letter in the word.

"L" is almost as simple as "I". Don't make the horizontal strokes too long.

There is an interesting story behind the Gothic letter "L". The designation "£" - the English pound originates from the Gothic form of the capital "L".

"L" is the first letter of the Latin word "librae", which means "unit of weight". The word "librae" in English was used in the meaning of "pound", like pounds, shillings and pence. So why is the pound called librae? Scientists suggest that in terms of weight, 1 pound pence just amounted to 1 pound in money. And librae means Libra in astrology. And the word "equilibrium" (balance) comes from it.

Well, enough world history? Let's go further!

The letter "M" is quite tall and graceful. Try not to make her shoulders too wide. Make them narrow and elongated, like the arches of windows in Gothic cathedrals. There are many interesting similarities between Gothic architecture and Gothic writing.

Important announcement: You are in the middle of learning the uppercase Gothic alphabet! It's time to relax and unwind. Stand up, stretch, shake your hands, massage them to relieve tension. Look into the distance to rest your eyes. You can even reward yourself with tea and cookies.

Ready? Then we continue:

You'll be happy to know that "N" is "H" without the hat.

In the letter "O" the main thing is to get a smooth balanced contour. Make sure that the letter stands vertically straight, does not fall on its side. So that its shape is rounded, and not ovoid or flattened.

As you can see, the "P" starts like a "B", only the first stroke goes below the baseline so that it can be completed with a nice stroke.

The "Q" is written almost like an "O", only it ends in a small ponytail that falls below the baseline.

With "R" everything is also simple. Its upper half is like "B", the lower half is like "K". Only the upper loop and the lower leg protrude much more strongly to the right.

The letter "S" has many spellings in the Gothic alphabet. This version of the "S" is similar to the "F" in that it has two parallel slanted curved lines in the middle. Make sure that the middle part of the letter begins and ends exactly between the base line and the top line of the line. There should be room for the top and bottom strokes. The final thin diagonal strokes should be on the same straight line.

After the "S", the letter "T" will seem simple. It is the simplest capital round letter of the Gothic alphabet. Perform the upper horizontal line smoothly, it has a width equal to the width of the base of the letter. No need to make it too long or short.

The letter "U" is almost the same as "C" and "G". The main difference is in the top left flourish, which is similar to the beginning of the horizontal "T" stroke.

The "V" is very similar to the rest of the round letters of the Gothic alphabet, just make the right crescent stroke a little more elongated to make the letter a little narrower, egg-shaped, so it's easier to distinguish from the "U".

The letter "W" is quite wide, so the instructions for writing it are located in two lines. Only the first two strokes are indicated on the diagram, then they are repeated. Start the second crescent stroke slightly below the full line height. In the horizontal plane, this stroke should begin where the same first one ends. With its thick part, the second stroke slightly touches the end of the first.

Basically, the uppercase "X" is a larger version of the lowercase. Here it is important to ensure that all parts of the letter are balanced relative to each other. Just look at what you've already written so you know when and where to stop.

"Y" looks funny. You might think that "Y" is spelled the same way as "U" and "V", but such a ponytail does not go well with rounded shapes. "Y" differs from other letters of this alphabet by rather large "ears" on top. The second "ear" should not start too far from the first. They are separated by a small space and a thin line on the second "ear". The tail is drawn with the corner of the pen, and the rhombus is added at the end.

Finally, we got to the letter "Z". It contains two horizontal wavy lines connected to two straight lines that run at a 45º angle. Another horizontal wavy line crosses the diagonal. Try not to make the wavy lines too long.

I hope you enjoyed learning and writing these capital letters of the Gothic alphabet. Now you can write any word and beautifully arrange your work. I recommend looking at cool examples of Gothic writing and trying to copy them. Good luck!

The article was prepared using materials from the site calligraphy-skills.com

Interestingly, the Gothic style of writing originates from the Greek alphabet. In 300 BC Alexander the Great (Macedonian) establishes the Greek language as a single language over a vast territory. The next Great Empire - Roman, adopted a convenient Greek script, but the main means of communication among the Romans was the Latin language with its direct antique type (serifs first appeared on capital letters (capitals) - serifs). Latin was borrowed from the Etruscans, whose letters, in turn, were based on the Greek alphabet.

In 395 AD e. at the end of the reign of Emperor Constantine, the Roman Empire was flooded with German barbarians, who by that time already had their own runic alphabet, which is also called futharcom(futhark). Here is an example of the runic alphabet of the Gothic (Germanic) Teutons.

Thanks to the spread of Christianity at this moment, there is a need for books and there are thousands of scribe monks who gradually modified the spelling of the font and created new styles.

Below is an example of a Celtic script called uncial(scriptura uncialis), because the letters were written on four guide lines spaced one ounce apart (24.5 mm). The Celts made Roman writing softer and more expressive

Further development of uncial writing led to the emergence of four forms: Irish letter(Ireland and England), Merovingian(France), Visigothic(Spain) and Old Italic(Italy). Between 900 and 1000 the most developed Merovingian writing was transformed into Carolingian which has become the norm for rewriting church books. This writing is characterized by the appearance of small (what we now call "lowercase") letters. By the end of 1000 AD. e. from the Carolingian the Romanesque writing (Romanesque) developed, which by 1200 had acquired an almost Gothic appearance. He is now known by the name Black letter, or, more often, Old English.

Early Gothic (Proto-Gothic)- was widespread in Western Europe and was used from the second half of the 11th century to the middle of the 13th century, in the period between the end of the Carolingian era and the beginning of the Gothic. Therefore, it can be considered as a transition from the Carolingian minuscule to the texture, since combines elements of these spellings.

Texture(from Latin textura - fabric, also textura quadrata, Blackletter, Old English) - the main type of Gothic writing. The phrase "Gothic" is usually associated with this variant. Appeared at the beginning of the 13th century. The texture got its name because it covered the page evenly and at a certain distance the page filled with such a font resembled the texture of a fabric. A characteristic difference between fonts of this type is the elongation of the letters. The typeface represented a revolutionary change in calligraphy - after centuries of emphasis on clear letter recognition, individual letters were suddenly subservient to an overall textural effect.


Textura Prescisus- developed in parallel with textura quadrata. Appeared presumably in the south of England and spread to France. The expression “vel sine pedibus” (lat. “without legs”) refers to the font, because. distinguished by a flat square base of the main stroke.

Bastard Secretary - The more formal the script font became, the more there was a need for more functional fonts to complement them. Therefore, refined texture fonts have given rise to typefaces for less prestigious, everyday writing. Several complementary spellings developed both regionally and nationally, rapidly evolving into full-fledged scripts. And they were classified as "hybrid" (bastarda), a term denoting fonts of mixed cursive and textural origin.
A similar phenomenon, presumably, originated at the end of the 12th century, for paperwork. I really like this typeface for its combination of massive strokes and thin, elegant decorative lines.

Batarde (Lettre Bourguignonne) is the French equivalent of the English Bastard Secretary. It was developed at the end of the 13th century and was used until the middle of the 16th century, it developed from cursive into a full-fledged formal script. It reached its most sophisticated form in the middle of the 15th century, in an era when the popularity of printed books was increasing among the general population. In this form, he was respected in the Burgundian court circles, hence the second name.


Fracture(German Fraktur - break, German letter) - a late variety of Gothic writing, the first handwritten examples date back to about the 15th century, the printed version appeared a century later. It is a mixture of German cursive and texture. Early versions appeared as vernacular, common spellings, and were later taken as the basis for many typefaces.


Schwabacher, Schwabach(German: Schwabacher) - a type of Gothic writing, originated in the 15th century. Broken letter with rounded outlines of some letters. This typeface dominated Germany from the late 15th to the mid-16th century. After that, it was replaced by fraction, but remained popular until the 20th century. Similar to texture, but a rounder, simpler version.


Rotunda(Italian rotonda - round) is an Italian version of the Gothic script (semi-Gothic font), which appeared in the 12th century. Differs in roundness and absence of fractures. Derived from the Carolingian minuscule. Gothic influence on the writings of eastern Europe between the 10th and 13th centuries received the strongest resistance in Italy. The clear forms of classical writing, the use of the Carolingian minuscule contributed to the emergence of a typeface that differs from Gothic in more round, open forms and short extensions. It was distributed until the 18th century, including being widely used in Spain.

Rotunda was already a transitional font from Gothic to Antique. In the north of Europe, especially in Germany, "true Gothic" typefaces gradually evolved into the wider and more readable "Late Gothic" typefaces.

Johann Gutenberg made an immense contribution to the fact that the Gothic type is still easily recognizable and popular. The previous process of transcribing an entire book by hand was tedious, time-consuming, and as a result, books were fabulously expensive and rare. The invention of Gutenberg - the printing press and the repeated use of individual lead letter letters, made it possible for 10 years to flood all of Europe with printing shops and book fairs.

Each letter was designed separately by Gutenberg and hand-engraved in solid metal. This fundamental technology of hot metal casting became extremely widespread, revolutionized the communication system of the West and was used until the 60s of the 20th century.

For the first letter castings, Gutenberg chose gothic type as the dominant form of cursive type of the time. This typeface was designed by Peter Shoeffer under the supervision of Gutenberg. The font was an exact imitation of the most perfect writing of that era. It contained about 300 characters, ligatures, abbreviations. For the first time, the Gutenberg font was used for the publication of the 42-page Mainz Bible (Mainz Bible).

Frankly, while I was not interested in this, it seemed to me that the Gothic letter was all the same, but it turned out that there were so many different interesting options.

If you want to try copying the samples from the post, you'll need a Parallel Pen, flat nib markers, or a regular flat pen. In the old days, specially sharpened feathers were used, but the benefit of technology today makes it possible to simplify this process. If you have already tried to write Gothic fonts - share your impressions and pictures.

It belongs to the Germanic group of languages ​​with 121 million speakers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Italy, France, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Australia, South Africa and Namibia.

The earliest monuments German writing belong to the 8th century AD. and are fragments of an epic poem, Song of Hildebrand- magical attraction and brilliance German language, written in a Latin manuscript. A small Latin-German dictionary, Abrogans dated 760.

The emergence of German literature dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries. These were poems, epic poems and novels. A well-known example is the epic poem Nibelungenlied(Song of the Nibelungs) and Tristan Gottfried of Strasbourg. The language of these works is now known as mittelhochdeutscheDichtersprache (Middle High German). During this period, official documents began to appear on German and there is a gradual displacement of the Latin language.

Types of German writing

High German (hochdeutsch)
High German began to acquire the status of a literary language in the 16th century. This process was initiated by Martin Luther's translation of the Bible in 1534. The language he used, based in part on spoken forms of German, became a model for writing.
Swiss German (SchweizerdeutschorSchwyzerdutsch)
A variety of German spoken by 4 million people in Switzerland occasionally comes across in novels, newspapers, personal letters and diaries.
Regional dialects of German, or Mundarten. They also appear in writing from time to time: mainly in "folk" literature and comics, such as Asterix.

Styles of German script fonts

Fracture
Fraktur was used for printing and letters from the 16th century to 1940 The name "Fraktura" (German Fraktur) comes from the Latin phrase " broken font". It is so named because its decorative windings (curls) break the continuous line of a word. In German it is usually called deutscheSchrift (Deutsch font).
Fraktur was also used for other languages: Finnish, Czech, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

Note
The second case of lowercase letters appears at the end of a syllable, except for the following combinations: ss, st, sp, sh and sch, while the first case is written in all other cases. Symbol? ( scarfesS or Eszett) is a combination of s and z, or a combination of two types of s. But the origin of this symbol is still disputed.

Fraktura text example

Sütterlin font

This kind font was created by the Berlin draftsman L. Sütterlin (1865-1917), who modeled it on the basis of the handwritten type used in the ancient German office. This font trained in German schools from 1915 to 1941. The old generation is still using it.

Sample text
Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Wurde und Rechten geboren. Sie sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt und sollen einander im Geist der Bruderlichkeit begegnen.
Listen to the text recording

Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards each other in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)