The Letter

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Arnold Böcklin

Bank Gothic Light

Bauer Bodoni

Most people consider shelter
the second most important in¬
gredient for human survival. B,
the second letter of our alpha¬
bet, evolved from the ancient
Egyptian hieroglyph signifying
shelter. Although the designs
are somewhat different, there
is a recognizable correlation
between this glyph and the sec¬
ond letter of the Phoenician
alphabet, which evolved from
it, and which the Phoenicians
called beth, which means
“house.” The name of this letter
is discernible in various place
names referred to throughout
the Bible, including Bethel
(“house of God”) and Bethle¬
hem (“house of bread”).

While the name change was
relatively minor, the Greek beta
that eventually emerged looked
quite different from the Phoe¬
nician beth. These structural
changes took place gradually,
over the course of many years.
First the character was inverted
so that the triangle sat at the
base. Then, perhaps because
symmetry was so important to
the Greeks, a second triangle
was added and the two trian¬
gles ended up on the right side
of the character.

The Greek beta further
evolved in the hands of the
Romans, who changed its name
to bä and, more importantly,
formalized the curved strokes.

<1 Д В

The beth was one of the
nineteen characters that the
Greeks acquired from the
Phoenician traders and subse¬
quently adapted as the basis of
their own alphabet. In the
process, they changed the
name of the letter slightly,
from beth to beta, and in doing
so provided us with the second
half of the two-letter name that
makes up the word alphabet.

The Romans were some of the
first calligraphers in the West¬
ern world. They brought flow¬
ing lines and graceful curves to
our alphabet. It was art born of
technology. The early Greeks
drew their letters by scratching
through a soft wax coating
applied to a wooden board,
which forced them to work
primarily in short, straight
lines. By the time the Romans

inherited the precursor to our
current alphabet, they were
using flat-nibbed pens and flat
brushes to draw their letters on
smooth writing surfaces. The
result was the beautifully pro¬
portioned letters we are now
familiar with. It has been
shown that even the inscrip¬
tions on Roman monuments
were first painted on with a
type of flat brush before they
were carved. These letterforms
were so proportionally com¬
pelling, and at the same time so
precisely legible, that they serve
as a guide to type designers
even today.

From the Phoenician square
“house,” the В grew into one of
the most beautiful letters of
our alphabet.

ITC Mona Lisa Reçut

Bodega Sans Black

20

Я^ІЯЯШШ

21

Shelley Volante

Manhattan

Fette Fraktur

Rusticana

Cooper Black

Industria Inline

The width of the В should
be about half, or a little more
than half, its overall height.
The top bowl emanates from
the vertical stem at an angle,
while the bottom swings from
the stem in a graceful curve.
The top bowl in roman designs
will sometimes meet the bot¬
tom at about one o’clock on its
curve. It is a common mistake
among novice type designers
to make the top and bottom
bowls the same size—the bot¬
tom bowl should almost always
be larger. Optically, this gives
the character a feeling of bal¬
ance and stability. In some
designs, such as Weiss, the bot¬
tom bowl may appear to be
smaller than the top one. This
is a fine balance, because if it
were actually smaller it would
look out of proportion. In
some faces, like Belwe and ITC
Benguiat, the lower bowl is
markedly larger than its top.

Weiss 'WJ

ГТС Benguiat

In roman typefaces the bowls
are widest slightly above the
center of each curve.

Normally, the two bowls are
joined by a hairline stroke that
appears parallel to the baseline
and connects to the main verti¬
cal stroke. There are some type¬

faces, however, in which this
hairline stroke does not quite
meet the vertical, or continues
the curve of the bottom bowl
and joins the vertical stroke
above its optical midpoint. In
ITC Souvenir, for example, the
bottom bowl attaches to the
bottom curve of the top bowl
rather than sharing with it a
common horizontal stroke.

ITC Souvenir Medium

Also in the interest of creating
an optical balance, the middle
hairline should be slightly heav¬
ier than the top, and the bottom
hairline just a little heavier than
the middle.

In roman designs the vertical
stem may have a slight “waist,”
which is the narrowing of a ver¬
tical stroke. If this is the case,
the bottom of the stem is usu¬
ally heavier than the top.

Friz Quadrata