Fraktur & Antiqua

Why we are here today

Antiquariates have always been one of my favourite places to browse, and I did not want to be obstructed by the fact, that I was not used to some of the typefaces of old books. So I ended up sitting down for a few days, practicing the letters. This has been more then worth it for reading historical literature. Nowadays, I am a great friend of broken types, such as Fraktur. If you compare Antiqua and Fraktur, it is very obvious, which one was developed with calligraphic ornamentation in mind, and which one was meant for being easily read, such as from monumental buildings. These two families of fonts have a very different character, Antiqua seems almost spartan when compared to the varied shapes, angles and lines of Fraktur. As such, it was clear, which kind of font I would want to use for this website.

Roman Letters from France

Surely, not everybody will want to start accustoming himself to reading Fraktur. And perhaps some readers only want to visit for a single, technical topic, and then leave again. In such cases, I prefer a compromise to no solution at all, and that is why there is a button for switching to the Garamond font. Truly, I was not sure, whether I could find an Antiqua type, which I would like as much, after having invested quite some time researching Fraktur (and proprietary fonts were out of the question too!). But I have to say, that since having seen this delightful font, I have been developing an interest in Antiqua as well. People who can make the world slightly more beautiful for others have my admiration.

Happy Little Accidents

At the moment, i am blindly relying on the Opentype functionality of my Fraktur font, to have ligatures and the long ſ (in German Fraktur typesetting, that is) placed for me. Therefore it is very likely, that mistakes will happen. Various orthography referoms, bad habits deriving from keyboard usage and the fact that I am not writing my native language will contribute their part and burden me with quite some editing in the future. My aspiration is of fourse, to deliver a work that is as flawless as possible, but until I get there, it will be a learning process. My gratitude is certain for any helpful hints in this matter!

It is probably for the best if I do not start writing about matters of style, such as font design, how to use and typeset foreing and loan words, and other topics. I will attend to this in due time.

Further Reading

• A (German) contribution including a discussion on typografie.info, which is very worth reading.