Gothic Calligraphy (Blackletter)
Dense, angular medieval letters written with a broad nib held at a fixed angle.
Updated
Gothic calligraphy, or blackletter, is a family of medieval scripts written with a broad-edge pen held at a fixed angle, which makes tall, narrow, angular letters with heavy vertical strokes. The most common form to learn is textura; fraktur is a later, more curved German version.
Gothic guidelines and proportions
Blackletter is measured in nib widths rather than millimeters. You stack short marks of the pen, edge to edge, to set the x-height, so the letters keep the same proportions whatever size of nib you use.
Textura usually has an x-height of about five nib widths, with short ascenders and descenders of about two nib widths.
The letters are upright, so there are no slant lines. What matters instead is the pen angle and the spacing between strokes.
Tools: broad-edge nib, pen angle and ink
- Pen: a broad-edge dip nib, a cartridge pen such as the Pilot Parallel, or a chisel-tip marker for practice. Wider nibs make the structure easier to see.
- Pen angle: hold the nib edge at about 30° to 40° from the baseline and keep it there for every stroke. A constant angle is what gives blackletter its thick verticals and thin diagonals.
- Ink: a dense, opaque black ink. Blackletter strokes are wide, so any streaking shows.
- Paper: smooth paper with a bit of weight, so wide wet strokes don't buckle it.
Unlike pointed-pen styles, you don't press harder to make a thick stroke. The width comes from the direction of the stroke relative to the nib edge.
How textura letters are built
Textura is made almost entirely of straight strokes. The most important one is the minim: a short vertical stroke with a diamond-shaped head and foot.
- Minims: i, m, n and u are built from one, three, two and two minims. The diamond at each end comes from a short diagonal turn of the pen.
- Equal spacing: the white space inside a letter and between letters is the same width as the strokes. This even "picket fence" rhythm is what makes a textura page look woven.
- Broken curves: where other scripts have curves, textura has angles. An o is two bent verticals joined by short diagonals, not an oval.
- Hairlines: fine decorative lines made by sliding the nib onto one corner, used sparingly on some letter endings and on capitals.
Fraktur uses the same pen and angle but mixes broken strokes with curved ones, especially in the capitals, which are wide and ornate. Learn textura lowercase first. Fraktur is much easier once the minim feels automatic.
The three hardest letters
In textura, these are the letters that most often go wrong.
- s: one of the few curved letters, it has to bend while keeping the angular feel of the rest of the alphabet.
- g: the bowl and the descender have to fit in a narrow space, and the descender is often drawn too long.
- a: the two-story a packs a small upper bowl and a lower bowl into the x-height, which is hard to keep open and readable.
Capitals are a separate challenge. Many blackletter alphabets borrow rounder capitals, called Lombardic or versal capitals, because capitals built only from straight strokes are hard to read.
Gothic vs italic
Both are broad-edge styles, and both use a fixed pen angle, but they are built in opposite ways.
- Structure: gothic letters are straight and broken. Italic letters are springy, with arches that branch out of the stem.
- Slant: gothic is upright. Italic leans forward slightly.
- Spacing: gothic is dense and dark on the page. Italic is lighter and more open.
- Readability: italic is easier to read in long passages. Gothic is best for headings, certificates, signs and short phrases.
Gothic is also what most people mean by "Old English" letters. For the Old English alphabet, including letters such as thorn and eth, see Old English letters.
Common gothic calligraphy mistakes
- Changing the pen angle. Twisting the nib between strokes changes the stroke widths and breaks the pattern. Check the angle often.
- Uneven spacing. Gaps that are wider than the strokes break the woven texture. Keep inside and outside spaces equal.
- Rounded feet and heads. The diamond ends come from a short, crisp diagonal move. Rounding them makes the letters look soft.
- Too much pressure. Pressing hard does not make broad-edge strokes thicker. It only splays the nib and blurs the edges.
- Tall ascenders. Textura ascenders and descenders are short. Long ones make the text look like a different style.
How to practice gothic calligraphy
- Rule guidelines with a nib-width ladder for your pen.
- Fill a line with minims, keeping the gaps the same width as the strokes.
- Build i, n, m and u from minims, then o, c and e.
- Move to letters with ascenders and descenders, then short words.
- Learn a set of simple capitals last.
Free gothic calligraphy practice sheet
Lowercase textura letters on nib-width guidelines. Print on US Letter or A4, no sign-up.
Gothic alphabet: lowercase
Is gothic calligraphy the same as Old English?
In everyday use, yes. "Old English" lettering usually means blackletter, especially textura, as seen on newspaper mastheads and diplomas. Strictly speaking, Old English is the language spoken in England from about the 5th to the 12th century, and most blackletter scripts developed after it.
What pen do you need for gothic calligraphy?
A broad-edge pen. A Pilot Parallel or a chisel-tip marker is the easiest way to start, because there is no dipping. A broad-edge dip nib gives the sharpest strokes once you are comfortable with the pen angle.
Is blackletter hard to learn?
The lowercase is easier than it looks, because so much of it is the same minim stroke repeated. The hard part is keeping the spacing perfectly even. Capitals take longer.