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many variations of which Textura, written in broad pen and also available in modernised versions, is still commonly used. During the Italian Renaissance, Rotunda was a popular alternative and founded the basis for Humanistic Italics which survives in today’s italics, and remains popular with calligraphers and in any number of fonts. Blackletter developed from Gothic in the 16th century; until the 20th century it remained the foremost script for letterpress printing in Germany.
CALLIGRAPHY TURNS INTO AN ART With the advent of letterpress printing and higher circulation of written texts the design of the script itself became less of a focal point, and in turn led to a resurgence of calligraphy as an art form. In a sense it was a parallel development to what we are seeing today. This is also when calligraphy and handwriting developed down increasingly divergent routes. While Gutenberg’s movable type
printing spread through German speaking countries in the 16th century, England held on to calligraphy and stuck with the reproduction of beautiful books through copperplate engraving and subsequent printing. This is how we got the font which today is regarded as the basis for socalled modern or contemporary calligraphy: Copperplate. It's good legibility, appealing aesthetics and most of all the
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