"Today's English alphabet is unchanged since the 16th century-with one exception: the long‑s fell from use circa 1800. Previously, there had been two forms of the letter /s: a long (tall) version at the beginning and in the middle of words, and another, our present‑day /s, at the end of words. The reform used the terminal version throughout. There are two theories as to why this occurred, neither satisfactory."
"Secondly, it is said that there was an economy to be made by printers in ridding their type cases of long‑s sorts, especially the many ligatures with their fragile kerns that made life so tricky for compositors. Again, why was this improvement not made earlier? An answer is suggested by C. S. Van Winkle in his Printers' Guide (New York, 1818), in discussing the 750 boxes of sorts necessary for the legion of demonstrative ligatures and abbreviations once required to typeset classical Greek,"
Around 1800, English typography underwent a sharp transformation as the long‑s fell from use, spelling became standardized, and typographic clarity increased through technical innovation. Previously, two forms of the letter 's' appeared: a long form at beginnings and middles of words and the terminal form at word ends; reform replaced the long form with the terminal version throughout. Two principal explanations are offered for the demise: confusion with the letter 'f', and printers' desire to reduce sorts and fragile ligatures. C. S. Van Winkle noted the vast number of sorts needed for classical Greek ligatures. The Auld English font project recreates pre‑1800 typographic forms to bridge that visual divide and return readers to earlier appearance.
Read at Auldenglish
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]