A handwritten ”font for technicians“ from ca. 1900

Very geometrical, rigid forms borrowed from the typical characteristics of Jugendstil/Art Nouveau

This script is found in a magazine from the Otto Maier publishing house, Ravensburg, which was issued sometime in the years shortly before WWI. The magazine is entitled ”Schriften-Sammlung für Techniker: Verkleinerte Schriften der wichtigsten Alphabete“ (Collection of scripts for technical specialists: reduced scripts of the most significant alphabets) and published by Karl O. Maier. The original copy, produced by means of a galvanized plate, is just 7 centimeters wide. It served as the model for technical professions in which, at that time, the captions of drawings were still done by hand.

The characters have been scanned, digitized and greatly magnified. Special attention was given to ensure the ”uneven“ edges, typical of handwritten script, remained effectively noticeable even in the digitized form. As a result, this ”technical“ font retains a handmade touch.

Especially worthy of note are the Jugendstil forms characteristic at the turn of the19th century.

In comparison, many alleged ”ultramodern“ font types of today suddenly look quite old-fashioned.