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English Roundhand & American Engrosser’s Scripts Similarities & Differences Perhaps direct comparisons with the same piece of text, will clarify some of the differences between English Roundhand (aka Copperplate) and Engrosser’s (Engraver’s) Script. 1) This line was written by Willington Clark c1733 and engraved onto Copper for printing by George Bickham. The style was described at the time as Roundhand, and eventually became known as English Roundhand. The name ‘Copperplate’wasn’t used at the time, but as the copybooks had been produced by this method, it seems natural that the name Copperplate should have been adopted and indeed, this is the name most commonly associated with this style of script. 2) It’s a popular misconception that this style of writing has to be drawn and not written. My handwritten version is based on the script from the engraved version. Being handwritten, albeit slowly, it conforms to the norm insofar as there are very few pen lifts and the writing is continuous from left to right with no paper turning or hand manipulation. The minuscule ‘e’ has to be written in two strokes if one is to emulate the slight downstroke shade on the second part of the letter. To achieve the flow of handwriting, I found it necessary to make one minor change. I have dispensed with this shade as I feel that it is more important to maintain the flow. In a handwriting style, two strokes when one will do, is counter-productive. This second downstroke shading appears in several letters and can likewise be dispensed with, as shown here - In all the ellipsed letters in the alphabet i.e. a, d, g, o and q, the weight of the left-side shaded stroke increases to the foot of the letter. I prefer to use the later form which evolve from pen use, and shade evenly from top to bottom. This can be seen here and also in the two letters ‘e’ (above) I personally, don’t like the slight backwards twist of the descenders, This can be seen in (1) in the letter ‘y’. I prefer to write these, straight as here - In the 18th century examples in ‘The Universal Penman’, it’s very rare to find a looped ascender. I have no special preference and use both straight and looped ascenders, from time to time. I have used a looped ‘l’ in my example (2) to show the difference. 3) This is the American Engrosser’s or Engraver’s Script, which evolved from English Roundhand. I have written this example based on exemplars by Dr Joe Vitolo and C P Zaner. Although not all versions of this script are identical, there are several key points which obviously difference it from its ancestor, English Roundhand. Typically this script is stronger than Roundhand with heavier shades.This is apparent in Engrosser’s Script (3) Although written at a slightly smaller x height, the weight of the letters means that the line is longer. Looped ascenders and descenders are usually larger and fuller. As this is a drawn lettering style, flow is not an issue and many strokes can be used to achieve the finished result. As can be seen, the little downstroke shade in the second part of ‘e’ and other similarly formed letters, is used in this Script. If an upward hairline follows a heavily-shaded downstroke, as in the letter ’n’ for example, the hairline is produced as a second stroke, avoiding touching the downstroke with the tiniest of spaces. This is to avoid pulling any of the ink up outof the downstroke. This technique results in the letter ‘m’ being drawn in three strokes. In the handwritten version (2) one stroke would suffice. I feel that the possibility of ink being dragged up into the hairline is minimal, and if it should happen, it’s a small price to pay for maintaining the handwritten flow. However, I realise that this is a subjective view and many will undoubtedly disagree.