Oct from Samantha - Style/Tool (List of styles)

Samantha is a newer exchanger. At first glance I thought this was from Janet. but the Hartford CT postmark stood out - so I knew it wasn't from Janet. If Samantha sticks with the exchange that will make 4 CT exchangers. 

Yesterday's post said that I was going to fill up the last 6 days of Dec with envelopes and then come back and fill in the blurbs the following day which would have been Sunday. I took Sunday off and focused on the huge project involving the organizing of the things I save and exemplars - which needs to be done before I get serious about my Style/Tool Project.

There have been some additions to the lists of styles and tools - and I appreciate that Kate and Ruth responded. It's never too late to respond so if you think of more, let me know. I feel like there was a third person who responded - apologies if I've left someone out.

I have rearranged the styles into groups. One group lumps a lot of older broad edge styles together because they are a confusing group and I'm not sure I'll spend much time with any of them. They are confusing because nobody is in charge of names and for centuries the names have been random and there's no way to create a standardized naming system.

Blackletter, Gothic and Old English are the three names that are used all the time and they all mush together. Yes, we could look at details and see that some are rounder and some are more compressed and some are super simple and some are very complicated - but as a group - they are all pretty chunky. For our purposes, they are all going to get lumped together. I tend to use *blackletter* for all of them. 

Here's my new list:

Very basic shapes of standard alphabet shapes - Romans are just the caps and Foundational includes lower case.

Romans

Foundational

Very old and doesn't fit with any of the other styles but it's artsy

Runes

Mostly older styles - all done with BROAD EDGE - even though we can do variations with a monoline - many are from the pre-printing press era when books were written by hand

Uncial - old, all caps - roundish

Carolingian - like Uncial but with a lower case - roundish

Blackletter/Gothic/OldEnglish - Batarde, Gothisized Italic, Fractur - a gazillion different styles - mostly rectangular 

Italic - two-gazillion styles

Neuland - a very contemporary style but lumped in with the broad edged styles  - while mostly done with broad edge - we will try it with a monoline and see what happens

French Roundhand - very much like a script because the letters are joined but it's mostly done with a broad edge. 

Relatives of cursive - writing that is joined - came way after typesetting

Copperplate - pointed nib or monoline

Spencerian - pointed nib or monoline

Penmanship/Cursive/Handwriting - the sky's the limit

Versals - so many different styles in this category

Brush script - pointed brush

Brush script - flat brush

These are styles that were designed by specific people

Ben Shahn

Peter Thornton’s Button Alphabet

Jacqueline Svaren’s Bone

Gwen Weaver’s WeaverWriting +

Loredana Zaga’s Flame

Arts & Crafts styles - these get their own category because there are so many and they are very beginner friendly. They bridge hand lettering and typesetting.

Fonts - this category has an infinite number of styles - it will include all the styles where the letters are drawn eand there are many alternatives to how to make particular letters. This would include all the styles where the letters are actually little pictures. 

And then we have  

Asemic writing - which is scribbling that gives the impression that it's writing but it is not legible.