Scripts and Fonts

I think that this week for everyone is a pretty crazy one.  I am going to do you all a favor by trying to keep this short (and to do myself a favor too).  Since we just barely switched over from written knowledge to print, I thought I'd make sort of a bridge post about the transition and its effects on the way we write.

Compare these two writing samples.

A sample written script.

Sample font from Gutenberg's Bible

Obviously not all written things are that hard to read and not all print was that detailed and beautiful, but that is just an example.

A few weeks ago I got a random email from FamilySearch about indexing.  (Family Search indexing is a way that anyone can give service by transcribing old written documents into electronic type so that they are readily searchable for people studying their genealogy.)  The email linked me to a few sites about paleography which got me thinking about the differences between our letters today and the letters of 'back then' and the way that print changed that.