Blackletter

Blackletter is a type of font predominately used from 1150 to the early 1500s. The ornate curving characters that make up blackletter fonts reflects the carefully crafted calligraphy used by monks to make manuscripts during the middle ages. Some forms of blackletter made the transition from hand-written to printed text, but the ornate nature of the font makes it difficult to read in a large quantity. Since the world was moving towards lager books with more text printed quickly and easy to read, blackletter was no longer used in books, but it still has its place as a decorative touch in titles, certificates and other important documents.

 

There are many different forms of Blackletter, shown below:

-Textualis- The most calligraphic form of blackletter, commonly used by French, English and German printers in the 14^th and 15^th century.

-Schwabacher- A predominately German type that was widely used for the printing of Bibles and used rarely ever since.

-Frakture- The most popular blackletter in Germany, especially during the mid 16^th century. It was so popular that any blackletter in Germany was called “Fraktur.”

-Cursiva- The induction of paper rather than parchment made cursive writing much more feasible. Thus, this blackletter form was introduced.

-Lucida- This is the modernized form of blackletter, simplified for more legibility and readability.

Question: What caused the large-scale transition from blackletter to more modern types?