Printable Old English letters
Print the alphabet as hollow letters to colour in, capitals, small letters or both, or type a name and print it in Old English letters, as big as the page allows. Print it, or save it as a PDF.
5 fonts · US Letter or A4 · free, nothing to sign up for
Preview · 1 page · UnifrakturMaguntia
01 / Practice
Practise Old English letters
Teenagers and adults: blackletter rewards a steady hand and patience, and suits calligraphy beginners who want a clear system of strokes. Younger children can colour the hollow letters, ornate enough to keep them busy.
- Small letters first
- Choose The alphabet, Lowercase: blackletter is built from its small letters, and the capitals only begin words.
- Use a broad pen
- Trace the hollow letters with a chisel-tip marker or a broad nib kept at a fixed slant; the heavy strokes and the hairlines then appear without effort.
- Then a name
- Switch to Your words for a name, typed with one capital. In blackletter a name set in capitals alone is hard to read.
The order to practise in
- 1i n m uMinims first: the upright stroke with angled feet that makes up most of the small letters.
- 2o c e aThen the round letters, broken into straight strokes and sharp turns.
- 3b d h k l f tAscenders, which rise above the minims.
- 4p q g y jDescenders, which drop below the line.
- 5r s v w x zThe letters left over: r with its flag, the diagonals, and s, the oddest shape in blackletter.
- 6A to ZCapitals last, one at a time: each begins a word on its own.
Printable Old English letters, answered
- What pen do I need for Old English letters?
- A broad-edged pen or a chisel-tip marker, about 3 to 5 mm wide, held at a steady angle of 30 to 40 degrees, so downstrokes come out thick and sideways strokes thin.
- Is Old English lettering the Old English language?
- No. Old English the language was spoken in England until about 1150 and written in an insular script; Old English letters means the blackletter of later centuries, a name printers gave it.
- Which Old English font is easiest to colour?
- The heaviest: New Rocker and Pirata One have the fattest strokes of the five. UnifrakturMaguntia, the main font, has fine hairlines that suit a pen better than a crayon.
Want one letter on a page of its own? The Old English letters page opens each letter big, in 5 fonts, with a sheet for it alone.