Roman lettering

Lettering on a war memorial panel by Percy Delf Smith

Roman lettering or Trajan lettering[a] refers to the use by artists and signwriters of Roman square capitals in modern lettering, particularly in Britain.[10][11][12][13][14][3]

Around the early twentieth century, British artists in the Arts and Crafts movement led by Edward Johnston came to see the proportions of Roman square capitals as an attractive, timeless form of letters, the ideal for artistic use.[15][16][17][18] Artists who worked in this style included Johnston's pupils Eric Gill, Graily Hewitt, Percy Delf Smith[b] and MacDonald Gill,[19] as well as Reynolds Stone and many other professional signwriters and letter engravers.[20] Roman capitals were used along with lower case, Arabic numerals, italics and calligraphy in a complementary style.[21]

The style has been used for lettering where a feeling of timelessness was wanted, for example on First World War memorials and government buildings, but also on shopfronts, posters, maps, and other general uses.[22][23][24][25] The popular name "Trajan" for this style of lettering came from the lettering on the base of the Trajan Column, copies of which were often used (in theory, at least) as models by lettering artists.[22][26][3] Phil Baines commented that it became "Britain's standard style of official lettering".[27]

  1. ^ Nash 2002, p. 22.
  2. ^ Gray 1960, p. 13.
  3. ^ a b c Gray 2005, p. 8.
  4. ^ Johnston 1906, pp. 268–269.
  5. ^ Evetts, L. C. Roman Lettering.
  6. ^ Nash 2002, p. 19.
  7. ^ Lubell 2010, p. 22.
  8. ^ Lubell 2010, p. 25.
  9. ^ Nash 2002, p. 27.
  10. ^ Gregory, Richard. "The English Signwriting Tradition". Richard Gregory Signwriter. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  11. ^ Zhukov, Maxim. "The Trajan Letter in Russia and America". Typejournal.ru. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  12. ^ Tam, Keith (2002). Calligraphic tendencies in the development of sanserif types in the twentieth century (PDF). Reading: University of Reading (MA thesis). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  13. ^ Mosley, James. "Number Ten". Typefoundry (blog). Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  14. ^ Griffith, Heather. "The Lettering Arts Trust Journeyman Scheme: Trajan Alphabet". Heather Griffith: Stonecarving. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  15. ^ Mosley 1964, pp. 29–31.
  16. ^ Howes 2000, pp. 26–27.
  17. ^ Shaw, Paul (August 2003). "What distinguishes a good letter from a bad one?". Reed Magazine. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  18. ^ Lommen, Mathieu. "'Simply phenomenal': de kapitalen op de zuil van Trajanus". Allard Pierson Museum. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  19. ^ Walker, Caroline (25 December 2019). "Biography - MacDonald Gill". MacDonald Gill. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  20. ^ Nash 2002.
  21. ^ Delf Smith 1936, p. 2.
  22. ^ a b Mosley 1964, pp. 31–35.
  23. ^ Gray 1960.
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ross Map Roman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ Frere-Jones, Tobias. "Mallory: drawn out from memory". Frere-Jones Type. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  26. ^ Mosley, James. "Eric Gill's R: the Italian connection". Type Foundry. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  27. ^ Baines 2007, p. 23.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).