Typophile

node 9438

unknown

Hi, from what I understand there are different categories of italic typefaces, including basic italic, format italic, chancery italic, and cursive italic. Id like to find out more about this, does anyone know details about this or know resources where I can learn more about this..

unknown

i found this book to be a great resource to understanding how the different calligraphic scripts are related. it might be a bit overkill for your question though.

Also, don't forget the sloped roman category of italics.

unknown

Typographically, it's probably most useful to see just two main strands, cursive (of varying degrees) and sloped-roman.

Paul, nice looking book. Check out Mediavilla's too.

hhp

unknown

going back to what you first posted, i believe (but could be wrong) that the formata italic is the same as what you meant by "basic italic" and then chancery is a more swashy version of the formata. From "The Art of Calligraphy" by David Harris: "Formata letters are distinguished by the wedge serif to the left of the stem, corsiva by the swashes to the right of the stem." (p. 96)

A "cursive italic" i would consider a script face. or did you mean something else?

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