PlagueJester's avatar
Haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Very cool of you to explain it all like this.
MartinSilvertant's avatar
Nice! I didn't expect you to be interested in this one.
PlagueJester's avatar
I'm /very/ interested.

All day at work today I was thinking about a nice typeface (that's impossible to read) I saw in a calligraphy book. I think I'm going to try to replicate it from memory with the help of your article.
MartinSilvertant's avatar
A typeface which is impossible to read... that certainly sounds interesting. I'm eager to see what you will come up with.
PlagueJester's avatar
And it's not some silly scribble deal. It's something old and gothic.

I can't find it, but it's very similar to this illegible script. [link]

The one I saw was almost pure vertical lines, with the horizontal lines being so thin (especially in contrast to the exceptional thickness of the vertical lines) that they almost appeared as accidental strokes instead of real parts of the letter.
MartinSilvertant's avatar
Very nice. You might want to look into Albrecht Dürer's type designs. He made a simple model to create blackletters using a grid. Here's a little taste: [link]
PlagueJester's avatar
Hey, I know that name! He's the guy that did "Melencolia I" which has that spectacular magic square in it!

\o/

Thanks for the link, I think it'll be super helpful :)
MartinSilvertant's avatar
You're welcome. I have several books about his engravings, but strangely enough I never dug deep into his type designs. I should look for a book on just that. I don't have a comprehensive book about blackletters yet. I thought "Fraktur Mon Amour" would offer some theory, but although it's an amazing book, it only shows the basic letter sets of many beautiful blackletters. But look up that name and who knows you will find more inspiring blackletters.

I don't remember seeing too many illegible ones though, but by Googling "medieval (blackletter) script" you will likely find more images like the one you sent me. I think specifically the type of blackletter you saw is Textura, so also Google "textura script".
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