Engraved Script headstone font

About Engraved Script

Engraved Script is the flowing, looped, hand-lettered family. Reserve it for personal lines — an epitaph, a child’s name added years later, a phrase the family wants set apart from the formal information above. Scripts usually cost the shop more to cut and are most rewarding when used sparingly.

When to use Engraved Script

• A single epitaph line below an otherwise roman or sans-serif inscription
• A child or grandchild’s name added below a parent’s formal inscription
• A meaningful phrase that the family wants set apart visually from the dates and surname

When to avoid Engraved Script

• Full-stone inscriptions where every line is script — too much visual weight, and script at length is hard to read at engraving sizes
• Stones with existing Block Gothic or other sans-serif inscriptions — the family mismatch is severe
• Military or veteran stones, where the formality of service convention conflicts with the personal register of script

Common pairings

Patterns that work when Engraved Script appears alongside other lettering on the same stone:

• Roman Serif — A Roman Serif name and dates with a single Engraved Script epitaph below is a familiar pattern in American cemeteries.
• Classic Serif — Classic Serif primary inscription with an Engraved Script personal line works the same way.

History and typographic context

Engraved Script descends from copperplate engraving — the 18th- and 19th-century technique of cutting letters into copper printing plates with a steel burin. Cemetery stones adopted these forms for personal lines from the late 1800s onward; the convention has remained almost unchanged. Monumize uses Great Vibes, an open-licensed contemporary script.