• Sources of various black-letter types date back to 15th century
• Today, listings of available black-letter type faces are not very large
• Though black letter has declined, it still has special applications

Of the many types available to American printers, the group which is used least under modern printing conditions is black letter. Even the terminology of this classification requires some revision, but because of the limited use of these types, there has been little interest in a more definite nomenclature.

Some typographic authorities use the term text letter to describe what is truly a gothic form. However, printers in the United States have long since applied the name gothic to types of sans serif structure rather than to the letters which follow the style of northern European 14th century manuscripts. Hence, it has been necessary to apply another designation to text letter.

Those who favor black letter as a name argue that the term text letter will be confused with those types which are primarily for text composition, i.e., types for straight-matter composition.

Name Designations Vary

This viewpoint is met with the statement that black letter could mean boldface, and so it goes. This term, while it is descriptive of the general appearance of the letter, does not truly go back to sources, as Old English is a development of the first movable types cut by Gutenberg. Since a truly generic term has not yet been evolved, printers will probably continue to use all of these designations.

However, it will be worthwhile to examine sources to determine the variations of design in the black-letter types now available. Of course these faces are now pretty well restricted to such occasional printing as certificates, resolutions, period, and theological printing (this last despite the oft-expressed horror of modern typographic designers at such “obvious” type selection).

Following the development of minuscule letters in the eighth and ninth centuries, manuscript hands became nationalized; that is, they followed somewhat different trends in various localities. In the northern European countries, particularly Germany, this hand evolved into a condensed, heavy, broad-pen letter with almost all curves eliminated.

The name given to such writing was textura, due to the almost woven appearance of the page, which was rather tightly spaced and contained many joined, or ligatured, letters. These, together with the condensed drawing of each letter, combined to save space, always at a premium because of the scarcity of materials.

Upon the invention of Gutenberg’s type face about the middle of the 15th century, this manuscript form was made into enduring type for multiple production of the printed word. Gutenberg’s type, in fact, copied many of the tricks of the scribe, particularly in perpetuating the many joined characters.

Another designation of this face is lettre de forme. The important books from the press of Gutenberg—the 42- and 36-line Bibles, and the great Psalter of Fust and Schoeffer—were printed from such a letter.

The second development of black letter is the Gothic-Antique, a letter with the more rounded form of the Roman manuscript$. This type first appeared in the Catholicon of 1460, also printed by Gutenberg. Gothic Antique became the inspiration for William Morris’ Chaucer type in the 1890’s when he established the Kelmscott Press in England.

Roman Influence Appears

Upon the flourishing of printing in Italy and the introduction of Roman type, the black-letter form was again changed to incorporate the rounded drawing of the southern European styles. This form, termed Round Gothic or Rotunda, was first used by Ratdolt, the German printer who established his reputation in Venice and continued in Augsburg. The Round Gothic became the national hand of Spain. It is frequently called Southern Gothic.

The last form of black letter is the so-called Lettre Bâtarde, which today is seen primarily in two German variations, Schwabacher and Fraktur, both of which are rather decorative adaptations of the original black letter. They are almost cursive in their construction. The Fraktur or broken letter, which first appeared early in the 16th century, became the standard German type for everyday printing. It still retains some favor, although the Roman form is again dominant in modern German printing.

American printers have had many black-letter types in the last 50 years, but most of them are now in the hellbox or in the cases of specialized collectors of antique types. This situation reflects some credit on the increasing awareness of good type among the nation’s printers. While quite a few of the black letters produced since 1900 have been well planned as adaptations of historic fonts, more have been merely decorative faces with little to recommend themselves as serious designs.

Blackletter Use Decreasing

A glance through the library of type specimen books will indicate the change in demand over a short period. The famous ATF specimen book issued in 1923 listed a full dozen black letters; the current volume shows but four styles. Still older books offered a variety, many of which would be completely unacceptable today. Frederic W. Goudy always had a fondness for such types. He designed nine of them in his lifetime but only two of them are in constant use.

To list the black letters used currently by U.S. printers will take very little space. First, the types which date back to the original Textura, with some modifications: Possibly the most frequently used black letter is Goudy Text, produced by Monotype in 1928, and No. 62 in Goudy’s long list of types. A short time later Goudy also produced the Lombardic Capitals, particularly useful as replacement of the standard black letter caps, for variety.

Of almost equal popularity is the Cloister Black first cut by American Type Founders and then by Monotype. This type is taken from William Caslon’s much admired copy of one of Caxton’s early faces-probably the Type No. 5, which in turn stemmed from the Gutenberg model. Not quite as condensed as the Goudy face, it is equally free from the fussy mannerisms of many black-letter adaptations. Both of these types can be truly classed as lettres de forme.

Another face which has found favor with typographers is an importation from Germany-the Jessen type of Rudolf Koch, cut by Klingspor. This type is not condensed, but in lowercase it follows the traditional form. The capitals, however, are Roman, which makes the type unique among black letters.

There are no modern Gothic-Antiques available since the old ATF Tudor Black, patterned after Ratdolt’s letter, went out of style. In Round Gothic, however, the recent issuing of Goudy Thirty by Monotype supplied a much-needed type in that style. However, the face is at present available in just two sizes—18-point and in 60-point initials.

The use of black letter for social printing has declined a great deal, but there is still a demand for such letters. Wedding Text of ATF and Monotype, Society Text of Ludlow, and Lino Text of Mergenthaler supply such demand. These types are essentially decorative adaptations of the true black letter, and while useful in their own specialty, will never take the place of the strong well-formed types which have been the heritage of the printer’s craft since Gutenberg’s time.

This article first appeared in “The Composing Room” column of the August 1957 issue of The Inland Printer.