"Cursive" italic forms

Daniel Goldberg

I admire the cursive or brush script style of letters in the Operator and Matrix II italics, especially the f, r and s. But I can't find any more instances of text faces with these kinds of italics. Can you help me find more examples??

Claudio Piccinini

Script 12 Pitch. Originally developed by IBM for their Selectric typewriters.
Since the inspiration for the beautiful Operator came from monospaced typefaces, I guess this is one of the main references, unless there are earlier monospaced script typefaces.

Claudio Piccinini

Matrix is another matter. It’s just an unconnected script, the forms favored probably because of personal taste by Zuzana Licko, but in the end is a conventional serif italic with more calligraphic forms for some of the glyphs.

Nick Shinn

Cochin.

Daniel Goldberg

Good point about the monospace origins. 
There's the monospace script in unicode mathematical alphanumeric symbols:

Mark Simonson

There were definitely typewriters with script typefaces prior to Script 12 Pitch. I have a portable Olympia SF De Luxe from the early '60s that once belonged to my grandmother, and it came with a script face:

Thomas Phinney

There may well have been other typewriter script fonts before IBM’s Script 12 Pitch, but IBM’s is older than one might think. I think it was either introduced  with the Selectric in July 1961, or quite soon thereafter.

(I had to research IBM Script once for a case, but that time all I needed to know was that it wasn’t around in 1942 or earlier.)

John Savard

IBM made an imitation of Olympia's script typeface for their typebar electric typewriters, they called it Corinthian Script. But nothing resembling the typestyle of their Script elements for the Selectric was offered for them.

PabloImpallari

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PabloImpallari

Also Goudy's Remington typewriter.
Its pure beauty and afaik not yet in digital
Sample from his book

John Savard

Thomas Phinney said:

There may well have been other typewriter script fonts before IBM’s Script 12 Pitch, but IBM’s is older than one might think. I think it was either introduced  with the Selectric in July 1961, or quite soon thereafter.

I'm nearly certain that you're right, but in a quick search, the earliest IBM advertisements for the Selectric that showed some of the typestyles available for it - which did include Script - dated from 1966, so I can't be absolutely certain yet.

Claudio Piccinini

Mark Simonson said:

There were definitely typewriters with script typefaces prior to Script 12 Pitch. I have a portable Olympia SF De Luxe from the early '60s that once belonged to my grandmother, and it came with a script face:

Very nice, but it’s monolinear. What makes Script 12 Pitch so fascinating to me it’s that modulation: from calligraphic sources but very mechanic at the same time. Jonathan Hoefler managed to achieve this wonderfully in Operator, the concept is great (to have both monospaced and proportional evoke this).

Mark Simonson

Jonathan Hoefler managed to achieve this wonderfully in Operator,

Just to clarify, Andy Clymer was the main designer, with assistance from others including Jonathan.

Laurence Penney

The Hammond typewriter was pretty cool, with multiple script faces including one with a proper cursive ‘r’. My translation:

Only the Hammond allows typing in thirty diverse languages and in 120 different characters, changing the shuttle takes no more than three seconds: so it is possible to type just as easily in French and Russian, in German or in any other language on the same machine. For those who only type in one language, it allows the characters to be changed and thus attract the attention of the reader to a word or phrase.

The above advertorial and ad are from my copy of Guide Vulcan (Association Générale Automobile, 1907).

Here’s an ad in English from Typewriter.be.



Here’s one currently for sale on Ebay for $540 with a very cool Latin/Greek keyboard.

John Savard

Compatible with the Hammond typewriter, but also able to use proportionally-spaced typestyles, is the Vari-Typer. By now, they've also become antiques instead of junk. It used a four-unit system; basically equivalent to the spacing of an IBM Executive typewriter, except with the widest five-unit characters limited to four units.

If you've seen a vinyl record with the paper label in the center in an ugly-looking typeface, or a printed form with less-than attractive typography, dating from the 1960s, the chances are it was made on a Vari-Typer.

Andreas Stötzner

Laurence Penney said:

… a very cool Latin/Greek keyboard.

this is more advanced than the keyboards we use nowadays.