Gothic scripts were born in the Middle Ages, with thick, angular and broken strokes that pack the letters tightly together. They come in several families, such as Textura, Rotunda, Schwabacher and Fraktur.
Where to see it
Gothic scripts can be seen in Gutenberg's 42-line Bible, set around 1455 in a Textura. Fraktur remained the everyday script in Germany until 1941. Beware of a vocabulary trap: in English, the word "Gothic" also refers to sans serif typefaces, such as Franklin Gothic or Century Gothic.
Why this detail matters
Gothic scripts hold a special place in the history of typography:
- They are behind the very first printed books in Europe;
- Their broken, tightly packed shapes make them very expressive, but harder to read for a contemporary eye;
- The double meaning of the word "Gothic" in English is a frequent source of confusion worth knowing about.
Related term
Blackletter is the other English name for this same family of scripts.