The Old English alphabet
In the US, Old English letters means blackletter: the gothic hands of late medieval books and the German Fraktur type that followed, seen today on diplomas, mastheads and tattoos. Here are all 52 in UnifrakturMaguntia, drawn from a Fraktur of 1901, and in four more blackletter fonts.
03 / In other fonts
The alphabet in 4 more fonts
Each from the catalogue, free to use. Open one to see all its letters and the fonts closest to it.
04 / By hand
How they are drawn
Print the hollow letters to colour, or draw your own: the outline is what makes them.
- A broad pen
- The thick and thin strokes come from a flat nib held at one angle: strokes pulled down are thick, strokes along the nib’s edge are hairlines.
- Picket fences
- Small letters are built from upright strokes called minims. In a word like minimum they run together, which is how i came to have a dot.
- Capitals start words
- The capitals are drawn to begin a word or a name. A whole word in them is hard to read, so write the capital once, then small letters.
Print the 52 letters to colour →
All 14 free gothic fonts →