Study Task 3 - Blackletter Research

Approaching the Structure of Blackletter

Blackletter is ‘heavy but not weighty’ with the letters firmly rooted on the baseline, whilst the diamond shaped tips balance the form which maintains its ‘heaviness’. The point orientates the form, as well as creating the illusion of movement, in terms of directionally pointing up and down. This creates a contradiction between the kinetic points which create movement and the strong static stems making it heavy but light at the same time.

In the 12^th Century blackletters popularity increased. It was associated with Christianity, distributed more with the spread of writing and was functional because of its condensed form, allowing more words to fit on a line.

Blackletter was originally used in bibles and Catholic scripts; however, it is also associated with Rock and Roll and Punk giving it mysterious connotations.

It is also associated with heritage because of its durability and traditional appearance. It has ties to Christianity particularly in the Middle Ages. In 1933 it was used by the Nazis for all their printed material, however in 1941 it was forbidden and associated with the Jewish culture, instead roman type was used which was more widely understood and suitable for when they planned to take over Europe.

Characteristics of blackletter include:

-        Stems with small final strokes

-        Curves that are broken but uniform on the baseline

-        Elongated stems on the i,r,d and e

-        Narrow letterforms

-        An ‘o’ more oval than circular

-        The body of text is generally darker

-        Stems in b, p, d linked to curves in the o and e

-        Straight strokes at 45 degrees

-        Consistency between the space inside and around the letterforms

-        Angular diamond strokes at the top and bottom of the stems

-        Thin and angular and compressed giving the perception of a darker type

Bastarda

This was an alternative to other blackletter type as it was easier and quicker to write, with its fluid curved strokes and rounded end strokes. It was developed from Textura and Rotunda in the late 14^th and early 15^th century. It also has a low x height with broad flourished ascenders and descenders making it more ornamental.

Schwabacher

This is a German blackletter developed in 1481 from Frankish Bastarda. It has a pen drawn style with exaggerated beginning and end strokes, an oval bowl in the ‘a’ and the lowercase ‘o’ has angled corners.

Fraktur

Designed in 1513 for the German language, it included lots of ligatures and a character for the ‘ss (β)’. At this time writing equipment was changing allowing fine lines and sharp contrasts to be created. This meant that the ‘o’ was broken on the left, whilst curving in the right. It also combined both ascenders and descender in single letters.

Textura

This was created in the late 11^th Century and is the first blackletter type. The shoulder and bowl of letterforms have curved strokes which are angular and ‘broken’. Stems are lozenge shaped at the top and bottom, whilst letters are condensed making them heavy and dark.

Rotunda

This was developed in the early 14^th Century. It was a transitional lettering moving from blackletter to roman, with the removal of the diamond at the top and bottom of stems. The ‘a’ is double storey with the lower half particularly small and the ‘o’ is curved and broken, however overall the letterforms are much rounder and legible in comparison to other blackletter.