Italic Handwriting Doesn't Have To Slope

[caliken]

As for any contention that the structure of Humanist and Italic are entirely different: I would point out the apparent difference between humans and chimpanzees is probably greater than that between humanist and italic. (You can set the Bible in either font, but it's doubtful you'd want the chimp running the linotype. Somethings will substitute, some won't.) Yet it's doubtful anyone would claim for any reason other than religious that there are no structural similarities between human and chimp. We share common ancestors with our hairy cousins, or so my paleo-anthropologist friends tell me, just as italic does with humanist. As I said, a gross over-statement.

 

Mickey : You ask "Why did Niccoli decide to slant". A simple answer: I believe that he didn´t make a conscious decision. As a result of changing the formal Humanist Script into a handwritten form the lettering became cursive (joined-up) more condensed (narrower) and finally, sloped as a result of writing more rapidly. This last element, being instinctive is not an essential part of the style and the slope or lack of it varies considerably from writer to writer.

 

I am on holiday at the moment, and am out of touch with my pens and my scanner, but on my return, I will gladly post a demonstration of my contention that "the structures of Humanist and Italic are entirely different".

 

 

Ken

Edited June 1, 2012 by caliken

[Mickey]

As for any contention that the structure of Humanist and Italic are entirely different: I would point out the apparent difference between humans and chimpanzees is probably greater than that between humanist and italic. (You can set the Bible in either font, but it's doubtful you'd want the chimp running the linotype. Somethings will substitute, some won't.) Yet it's doubtful anyone would claim for any reason other than religious that there are no structural similarities between human and chimp. We share common ancestors with our hairy cousins, or so my paleo-anthropologist friends tell me, just as italic does with humanist. As I said, a gross over-statement.

 

Mickey : You ask "Why did Niccoli decide to slant". A simple answer: I believe that he didn´t make a conscious decision. As a result of changing the formal Humanist Script into a handwritten form the lettering became cursive (joined-up) more condensed (narrower) and finally, sloped as a result of writing more rapidly. This last element, being instinctive is not an essential part of the style and the slope or lack of it varies considerably from writer to writer.

 

I am on holiday at the moment, and am out of touch with my pens and my scanner, but on my return, I will gladly post a demonstration of my contention that "the structures of Humanist and Italic are entirely different".

 

 

Ken

 

Thanks for your opinion. It's probably as good as any other (and better than most) at this remove in time. I don't know if I agree, however, that the change was unconscious, but I don't think it was vastly planned, either. Seemingly minor changes often beget or permit more fundamental changes. (I'm working on a novel right now and it's amazing the ripple effects from seemingly innocent changes.) For example, I believe the geometric changes Niccoli made to condense his new script allowed or suggested more joins than were formerly practical or attractive, or that a desire for more joins required that the letters be narrowed (and ultimately, slanted). That is, I believe the two changes are tightly bound, not separate, with only the causal arrow in question. Lacking Niccoli's cell phone number, I guess we'll never know.

 

As for the differences between Humanist and Italic: You say entirely, I'd say substantially... so, as Ira Gershwin might say, "Let's call the whole thing off," but do post your analysis, if you have time. It would be interesting, if for no other reason than for us all to see where Niccoli began and where we are now. (A suggestion or request: include a mono-line trace of the telling letter forms, so we see the tracing of the stylus, not the effect of edge.)

 

Enjoy your holiday.