The Scriptorium got its start in the early days of personal computers with a few font designs for the Commodore 64, and the very first font which we did back then in the early 1980s was a gothic calligraphy font. That style of fonts - the medieval, gothic and black letter genre - has always been the backbone of our collection, but with recent releases we've stayed away from them to introduce a bit more variety. Well, with our new Zauberer font the antique, medieval and gothic look is back with a vengeance. Zauberer isn't a true medieval calligraphy style. It's based on early printed type from Germany which combines calligraphic elements with decorative embellishments from the woodcut printing era. The result is decorative and antique looking and rather appealing. The name comes from the German word for a magician or illusionist.

a mixed gothic font

a gothic bold typeface

The first Tuscan lettering was penned in the mid-fourth century by the calligrapher Furius Dionysius Filocalus. The style was still in common usage as calligraphy when Vincent Figgins designed the first Antique Tuscan for print in 1817. Antique and Gothic Tuscan woodtype fonts appeared in the 1830’s. By the 1850’s, Tuscan fonts had become popular in America. These styles continued in print use into the twentieth century. Tuscan Antique and Gothic styles, borrowed from print and calligraphy, were perfect for signs, posters, handbills and other large format advertising. Sign painter, Frank Atkinson demonstrated several Tuscan forms in his book Sign Painting, A Complete Manual. Modified & Spurred Tuscan Romans were inspired by this and other works of the same period.