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Uppercase “C” Gave Birth to “G” — And You Can Still See the Family Resemblance
We touched on this briefly when covering lowercase “c” earlier in this series, but the story is worth telling properly...
Uppercase “B” Used to Have Just One Bowl, Not Two
Look at capital “B” in almost any typeface and you’ll see two stacked bowls attached to a single vertical stem....
Uppercase “A” Has Been Upside Down This Whole Time — Sort Of
Every letter in this series so far has been lowercase, tracing a shared story of medieval scribes rounding out Roman...
“z” Was Nearly Kicked Out of the Latin Alphabet Entirely
“z” closes out the lowercase alphabet in more ways than one: it’s the last letter alphabetically, and it’s also one...
Lowercase “y” Descends From a Greek Letter That Never Should Have Needed to Exist
“y” has an identity problem baked into its history: the Romans borrowed it from Greek specifically to write foreign words,...
Why “x” Became the Universal Symbol for the Unknown
“x” barely shows up in ordinary English words, yet it’s everywhere in math, movie ratings, kisses at the end of...
“w” Is Literally “Double U” — But It Was Never Actually Two “u”s
The name gives it away before you even look at the shape: “w” is called “double-u” in English, a name...
Lowercase “v” Is Built From Nothing but Two Diagonal Lines — and That’s the Whole Challenge
Lowercase “v” might be the most structurally minimal letter in the entire alphabet: two diagonal strokes meeting at a single...
Lowercase “u” Used to Be the Same Letter as “v” — Here’s When They Split
If “j” is the alphabet’s youngest letter, “u” is close behind, though its story is even stranger: for most of...
Lowercase “t” Is the Only Ascender With a Foot — Here’s Why That Matters
Look closely at lowercase “t” next to its ascending neighbors “b,” “d,” “h,” “k,” and “l,” and something’s different: “t”...
Lowercase “s” Might Be the Hardest Letter in the Entire Alphabet to Draw
Ask type designers which single letter gives them the most trouble, and “s” comes up constantly. It has no straight...
Lowercase “r” Is the Shortest Letter With the Longest List of Design Rules
Lowercase “r” doesn’t look like it should be complicated. It’s short, it’s simple, it’s mostly just a stem with a...
“q” Never Appears Alone in English — Here’s What That Means for Type Design
Lowercase “q” has a quirk unlike almost any other letter in English: outside of a handful of loanwords and proper...
Lowercase “p” Is Part of a Four-Letter Family That Still Confuses Kids Learning to Write
“p” belongs to one of the most notorious groups of letters in early literacy education: the “b,” “d,” “p,” “q”...
Why a Perfect Circle Makes a Terrible Lowercase “o”
It sounds counterintuitive, but drawing lowercase “o” as a mathematically perfect circle is one of the most common mistakes beginner...
Lowercase “n” Is the Most Important Letter You’ve Never Thought About
If “e” is the most common letter in English text, “n” is arguably the most important letter in a type...
Lowercase “m” Is Just Two “n”s Stitched Together — Sort Of
Lowercase “m” is the widest letter in most typefaces, and that width isn’t an accident of proportion — it’s baked...
Lowercase “l” Looks Simple — Until It Sits Next to an Uppercase “I”
Few letters generate as much quiet confusion as lowercase “l.” In many typefaces, it’s visually almost identical to uppercase “I”...