Non-Latin blackletter

jeremy tribby
jeremy tribby Posts: 251
in History of Typography
Are there examples of blackletter outside of Latin, that are not terribly anachronistic - maybe dating to the metal type era or earlier? I am aware of a Thai style that dates to the 19th century that is similar in appearance, though I'm not sure what (if any) relationship it has to Latin blackletter (if it is an explicit reference to Latin, or just a coincidentally similar style with a broad nib). Are there others?

Comments

  • Jongseong Park
    Jongseong Park Posts: 26
    Are you referring to the Naris style of Thai script? I just thought it was due to a broad nib, though I don't know enough about it to rule out the influence of Latin blackletter categorically.

    There are several Indic script styles that owe their appearance to the broad nib construction. If you're familiar with Tibetan art, you may have seen examples of the Lantsa or Lanydza (ལཉྫ) and Wartu (ཝརྟུ) scripts used for Sanskrit. These look superficially like blackletter because of the broad nib.
  • John Savard
    John Savard Posts: 1,135
    I saw, somewhere, an example of Korean being done up in blackletter style for a movie poster. Unfortunately, I can't recall where to provide a link.
  • Jongseong Park
    Jongseong Park Posts: 26
    There are certainly contemporary examples of Hangul (Korean alphabet) imitating Latin blackletter, but I didn't mention them because all the examples I am aware of are fairly recent. Mostly you see this in occasional lettering; full typefaces are extremely rare.

    There is a purported blackletter face called Blackstone (블랙스톤) by Im Jinuk (임진욱, not sure how he romanizes his name), but it's more of a Hangul design that pairs well with Latin blackletter rather than a close imitation.

    Zigzag Gothic (꺾인고딕) by Jang Yeonjun (장연준, not sure how he romanizes his name either) is more reminiscent of blackletter because of the angularity in my opinion.

    Song Jaewon (송재원) of Studio K110 (스튜디오좋) worked on a Hangul blackletter called Swag (스웩) for his graduation project in 2012, but it hasn't been released yet as far as I know. He has made movie poster mock-ups with this design, but I don't recall seeing an actual movie poster featuring Hangul blackletter.
  • jeremy tribby
    jeremy tribby Posts: 251
    These are great examples, thanks all
    Yes @Jongseong Park the Naris style. I thought of it because I have seen contemporary examples that lean into the Latin blackletter aesthetic, but it seems unlikely to be related in origin. I agree that the Sanskrit scripts have a similar feel!
    The Cyrillic is exciting to see because it is the first script that came to mind but I hadn't seen actual metal type examples of it, only contemporary work
  • Igor Freiberger
    Igor Freiberger Posts: 279
    edited June 2023
    I just found the first page of this collection of specimens. It was published in Kiev in 1929.
  • Vasil Stanev
    Vasil Stanev Posts: 775
    From my Cherokee topic on Typedrawers: a Cherokee blackletter
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1PjCk-aSKbQNzJmZWJkOGQtNzcxZS00ZGUzLWIwN2ItMDQ3MDcyOTgwODgx/view

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