A brief history of the drop-cap: Decorated or illuminated initials were an important part of medieval manuscripts for a thousand years. From luxurious gold and silver letters to plain drop capitals, they functioned to illustrate, commentate, and adorn the text. Learn their history and purpose, why they eventually went out of fashion, and what replaced them.

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We see it every day on signs, billboards, packaging, in books and magazines; in fact, you are looking at it now — the Latin alphabet, the world’s most used abc. But why do the letters look the way they do? Why, how, where, and by whom was the alphabet invented. This is the alphabet’s story.

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alphabet feature letterforms popular type history