The alphabet
There are twenty-six letters in the alphabet. Of these letters, thirteen that are called "short letters".
In addition, i and t are sometimes referred to as short letters since they are only slightly higher (the dot of the
i and the short finishing stroke of the t) than the others.
Eight other letters have main bodies that are similar in height to the short letters, but they also have strokes that
rise or fall from the body of the letter.
These strokes are known as ascenders when they rise above the body; and descenders when they fall below the body.
The remaining three letters have no recognisable body instead consisting of a vertical stroke.
In addition to the letters, there are figures (numerals or numbers) of varying kinds.
Modern or lining figures are all of the same height, and often reach to the top level of the capital letters.
Old style, or hanging, figures rise or fall with the lower case letters, so that a 6 will reach the ascender height
and a 9 will reach the descender depth.
Letter cases
The term ÒcaseÓ describes the boxes letters were stored in Ð upper case and lower case.
The upper case contained capital letters, commercial signs, dashes, braces, dipthongs and the ampersand. The lower case
contained miniscules that were placed in order of importance in the compartments.
From these boxes, compositors would select the pieces of type needed to make up a page of text.
Upper case letters
The capital letters we use are based on ancient Roman letters inscribed in stone.
In turn, these derive from other letterforms dating back more than 2,500 years.
The development of letterforms from (left) 25th century BC,
10th to 9th century BC, 7th to 4th century BC, 200 to 300 AD
and 20th century forms.
There are distinct differences between the upper case letterforms.
Lower case letters
Our lower case letters (or miniscules) are derived from the capitals, which were modified by manuscript scribes over
many centuries.
Our small letters have developed from upper case (or capital) forms.
Stages in the development and evolution of small letters from roman capitals.
Square capitals (4th to 8th centuries); rustic capitals (6th century);
uncials (5th century); half-uncials (8th and 9th centuries);
caroline miniscules (9th century); black letter (12th century);
humanist (15th century) chancery *15th century).
The slanting letters we call italics, used for emphasis, are based on the chancery scripts of the fifteenth century.
The letters of the lower case alphabet are divided into groups.
Written by Geoffrey Fletcher
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