Font explainer
Trajan as a headstone font: the inscriptional original
Trajan is a font name families often search for in a cemetery context. The reason: traditional Roman-serif headstone lettering descends visually from classical Roman inscriptions such as the one on Trajan’s Column, carved in Rome in AD 113.
Closest Monumize font
Roman Serif
Monumize’s Roman Serif uses Cinzel, an open-licensed font based on Roman inscriptional capitals. It is a different font from Trajan, but it sits in the same broad inscriptional-Roman style.
About Trajan
The contemporary digital font called Trajan (Adobe, 1989) is itself a revival of those inscriptional capitals. It has uppercase letters only, no lowercase — because the source carving had no lowercase. It’s used today for film titles, formal book covers, and yes, occasionally on headstones.
History
Trajan’s Column was completed in AD 113 to commemorate Roman Emperor Trajan’s Dacian Wars. The inscription at its base is widely admired as a model of classical Roman lettering, and many typography historians treat it as a key reference for the Roman serif tradition. American monument shops have cut variants of these letterforms for a long time.
Trajan on a headstone
Trajan the digital font is a commercial desktop typeface, and many monument shops use their own lettering patterns instead. What looks like "Trajan" on an American headstone is often a related Roman letterform cut by hand or sandblasted from a shop’s own pattern.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I get the actual Trajan font cut on a headstone?
- Possibly, at a monument shop that has licensed it for that use. Monumize does not offer Trajan. It uses Cinzel for Roman Serif because Cinzel is open-licensed and sits in the same broad inscriptional-Roman style.
- Will my family notice a difference between Trajan and Roman Serif?
- Possibly, up close — they are different fonts. Both draw on the same Roman inscriptional tradition, so compare them with your own wording before deciding.
- Is Trajan all caps?
- Yes. Trajan has no lowercase letters because the source carving (Trajan’s Column) had none. Monumize’s Roman Serif (Cinzel) does include both cases.
See the Monumize alternative
Roman Serif is Monumize’s closest open-licensed option to Trajan. 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.