The Letter

The twenty-sixth letter of our
alphabet was the seventh in the
Semitic. They called the letter
za (pronounced zag), which
meant “weapon,” and drew it
as a stylized dagger. The
Phoenicians used roughly the
same sign, which they called
zayin and which also meant
“dagger” or “weapon.” Similar
symbols were used in other
cultures, all of which had the
same meaning but expressed a
variety of sound values.

f t

Around 1000 B.C., the
Phoenician zayin was adopted
as the Greek zeta. While the
zeta looked more like a dagger
than the zayin did, it did not
look like the Z we currently
use. Actually, it looked more
like our capital I set in a slab
serif typeface.

Smaragd

Фг

Diotima

Ariadne

Cloister

Letraset Follies

The Romans used the capi¬
tal I form of the letter in their
monumental inscriptions,
although it was not recorded
on the famous Trajan column
(no Greek words there). It is
only when the letter was writ¬
ten by scribes and calligraphers
that the top and bottom
strokes were offset from each
other and connected by what
became a diagonal, rather than
vertical, stroke. The reason for
this design change? Probably
because it was quicker and eas¬
ier to write that way. The low¬
ercase z is just a smaller ver¬
sion of the capital.

The Romans incorporated
the zeta into their alphabet, but
since the sound it represented
was not generally used in Latin
they eventually dropped it,
bestowing its position of sev¬
enth letter on the G. In fact,
the only reason that the Z is
still in our alphabet is because
the Romans later found that
they needed it to write a few
Greek words that they had
incorporated into their lan¬
guage. Because it was an after-

Bodega Sans

Geometric 415 Black

Although many wouldn’t
notice it, the Z appears in two
forms. If drawn with a chisel-
edged pen or broad, flat brush
held in a natural position, the
horizontals would be thick and
the diagonal would be thin.
The Zs in such typefaces as Tra-
janus and Goudy’s Kennerly
are designed in this manner.

Zr и

Baskerville я

Many designers and lettering
artists, however, find this hori¬
zontal emphasis unsatisfactory
and the resulting weak middle
stroke unattractive, and as an
alternative design the letter
technically incorrect but, to
their eyes, optically more com¬
fortable. Typefaces as diverse as
Baskerville and ITC Benguiat
have this kind of reverse weight
stress. Most serif typefaces are
also constructed with the latter
kind of Z.

The Z is not a “square” let¬
ter, but is about three-quarters
wide as it is high. The horizon¬
tal strokes are usually the same
length, but in some designs the
top horizontal is slightly short¬
er than the bottom one, to give
the letter a firm foundation on
which to rest. In roman type¬
faces the Z is left pretty much
alone, and tends to be one of
the more conservative letters.
In italic designs, however, the
type designer quite often takes
some creative liberties and
concludes the lower horizontal
in a delicate flourish, or per¬
haps a full-fledged swash.

z

Manhattan

Aachen Bold

Minion Swash
Italic

62

63

thought, or at least not indige¬
nous to the Latin language, the
Z was relegated to last in alphaj
betical sequence.

Arcadia

Bank Gothic

Friz Quadrata

Helvetica Light