Texts & Fonts & Letterforms, oh my!
More text, font & letterforms!
Typography History!
All About Books, Writing Utensils and Everything in Between!
Misc
100
Define: Serif
Horizontal extensions at the end of the stroke of a letterform.
100
Define: Angular and condensed, with dominant heavy, vertical strokes causing many curves. Difficult to read.
Gothic
100
Fill in the blanks & define: The _______ were Holy wars fought from 1096 till 1291. An economic system where serfs or indentured slaves worked for the wealthy lord in exchange for protection. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern.
Crusades & Feudalism & The Middle Ages
100
Fill in the blank: The _____ was an early form of a book intended for temporary communication used by students and scribes in training. Consisted of two wax coated boards tied together along one edge.
Codex
100
Define: The measurement of an inch believed to be the precursor of upper and lowercase letters. Named for the grid used to construct Celtic letterforms.
Uncials
200
Ascenders: Portions of a letterform that extend above the _______ of the form.
x-height
200
Define: Gothic letters made with great precision and evenly spaced, leaving the page with a texture resembling woven fabric.
Black Letters
200
Define: Introduced by Alcuin of York (meaning during the reign of Charlemagne), this was used in the copying of many ancient manuscripts.
Carolingian
200
Define: Rolled documents constructed of papyrus. The left-hand side of a page of a book, also referred to as the "back" or "rough" side of the skin. The right-hand side of a page in a book, also referred to as the "good" or "smooth" side of the skin.
Scrolls, Verso & Recto
200
Define: The direction in which a curved stroke changes weight. Oblique stress (Old Style), Semi-oblique (Transitional), Vertical (Modern).
Stress
300
Define: When text leaves the page looking as if it were textured.
Textura
300
Define: Linear, strongly vertical Celtic letterforms.
Majuscules
300
Define: 1900s (aka Rotunda, or Littera Antiqua) Inspired by Carolingian, it combined square Roman capitals with curved, round, lowercase letters.
Humanistic Hand
300
Define: Parchment
A writing substrate made from animal skin.
300
Define: Condensed version of Capital Quadrata, allowed for 50 percent more content.
Rustica
400
Define: Pertaining to the Welsh, Cornish, or Scots Gaelic peoples. Letterforms had extraordinary variation and geometric ornamentation.
Celtic
400
Define & fill in the blank: A combination of _____ or more connected letterforms.
Two & Ligatures
400
Define: 1900s (aka Humanistic Hand, or Littera Antiqua) Inspired by Carolingian, it combined square Roman capitals with curved, round, lowercase letters.
Rotunda
400
Define: The highest quality of parchment, made from newborn calf skin.
Vellum
400
Define: Initial caps, identifying the beginning of a new section. These were highly stylized, including images of the characters featured in the story.
Illumination
500
Define: Written counterpart of the classic carved Roman capitals, used thick and thin strokes to incorporate an organic unity to the curves and straight lines.
Capitalis Quadrata
500
Define: Style of majuscule letterforms appearing to follow many characteristics of Nordic Runes.
Runic
500
Define & fill in the blank: Forty percent of the population died from the _____ plague, which resulted in people turning black. Brought on by disease from rats brought by cargo ships from the East.
Black & Black Death
500
Define & fill in the blank: A design _______ into a piece of paper during its production used to identify the paper and the papermaker. Visible only when the paper is backlit.
Embossed & Watermark
500
Define & fill in the blank: Style of writing in which the characters are _____ and full, (it brought a uniform lowercase Roman alphabet.)
Rounded & Carolingian Hand
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