Font explainer
Old English headstone fonts: blackletter on memorial stones
Old English — the angular, vertically-stressed medieval script most Americans recognize from newspaper mastheads and diplomas — appears on some American headstones, usually for a single line such as a surname.
Closest Monumize font
Blackletter
Monumize offers an open-licensed Blackletter font (UnifrakturCook Bold) in the same broad style. Blackletter has fine inner counters that can be hard to sandblast cleanly at small sizes, so it works best for a single, generously sized line. If you want a heavy look that is easier to read, Deep Relief (Merriweather Bold) is an alternative.
About Old English
Typographically, "Old English" is a colloquial name for blackletter — a script family that includes Textura, Fraktur, Schwabacher, and Rotunda. The forms originated in Western European manuscripts from roughly 1150 to 1500 and remained the dominant printed script in German-speaking countries until World War II.
History
Old English blackletter was the standard book hand of medieval Europe. When printing arrived in the 1450s, Gutenberg cut his first type to imitate the prevailing blackletter manuscript hand. American use of blackletter on headstones traces to mid-1800s English and German immigrant communities, who brought the script with them.
Old English on a headstone
Old English is most often used on a single line — a family surname or short epitaph. Full inscriptions in Old English are very hard to read at engraving sizes, and most families who specify Old English end up cutting only one line in it. How often you see it varies by cemetery and community.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Monumize offer an Old English font?
- Monumize offers Blackletter, an open-licensed font in the same broad style; it is not a specific commercial "Old English" font. Blackletter can be hard to sandblast cleanly at small cap heights because the inner counters are fine, and it is harder to read at a distance, so your monument shop may suggest using it for one line only.
- Is Old English appropriate for a 21st-century stone?
- It depends on the cemetery and the family. In a historic urban cemetery with significant blackletter precedent, yes. In a modern suburban memorial park, the stone will stand out in ways the family may or may not want.
See the Monumize alternative
Blackletter is Monumize’s closest open-licensed option to Old English. Monument shops can match the lettering and see the new date outlined on a photo of the actual stone.
Font names mentioned on this page are trademarks of their respective owners. Monumize does not offer these fonts; it suggests the closest open-licensed alternative.