Lettering style guide
Roman lettering on headstones: how to identify it and match a new date
Roman lettering is the style most people picture when they think of a carved inscription: capital letters with small, tapering serifs and strokes that swell from thick to thin. It descends from the capitals carved on Roman monuments, and stone cutters have adapted it for centuries, which is why it appears on everything from 19th-century marble tablets to granite uprights cut last year.
In the monument trade “Roman” is a family rather than one design. Shops use it for any serifed capital that keeps the classical proportions and contrast. When the serifs are blunted and the thin strokes thickened for sandblasting, shops usually call it Modified Roman instead, so the first job in identifying a stone is telling those two apart.
Also called: Classic Roman, inscriptional Roman, Roman capitals.
What to look for
- Serifs that taper
- Look at the ends of the strokes on E, T and the digit 1. Roman serifs are bracketed (they curve smoothly into the stem) and thin out to a fine point or edge. If the serifs are short, square or blob-like, it is more likely Modified Roman.
- Real thick-and-thin contrast
- The diagonal strokes of A, M, N and V alternate thick and thin, and round letters are thickest at the sides. On a well-cut Roman stone the thinnest strokes can be a fraction of the thickest.
- Classical letter widths
- O, Q, C, D and G are close to round; M and W are wide; E, F, L, S, B and P are roughly half as wide. Lettering where every letter is about the same width is not classical Roman.
- Oblique stress in round letters
- In O and C the thickest parts often sit slightly off the horizontal, as if drawn with a broad pen held at an angle. It is subtle, but it separates Roman from later high-contrast styles with strictly vertical stress.
- Cut, not painted
- Traditional Roman inscriptions were V-cut so light catches the two walls of each stroke. Sandblasted Roman is often cut flat-bottomed instead, which makes the contrast look a little lower than the drawing.
Telling characters
Dates are a good place to look. The digits 1, 4, 7 and 9 differ more between styles than 0 or 8, and month names supply telling letters: J in JAN., JUNE and JULY; G in AUG.; R in MARCH, APRIL and every month ending in -BER.
| Character | In Roman, look for |
|---|---|
| R | The leg usually leaves the bowl as a straight diagonal and often extends a little beyond the bowl, sometimes ending in a slight flick. |
| G | Wide and round; the end of the curve meets a short vertical or a small serif. A sharp horizontal spur is less classical. |
| J | Often drops below the line in classical forms; many monument versions sit on the baseline instead. Note which, because it changes the look of JUNE and JULY. |
| 1 | Usually a flag at the top and a foot serif, with the stem swelling slightly toward the ends. |
| 4 | Commonly closed with a pointed apex; the crossbar and stem carry small serifs. |
| 7 | A thin top bar with a serif and a stem that curves or angles down to the baseline. |
| 9 | The tail curves round under the bowl rather than dropping straight. |
Where Roman is used
Roman is used for names and dates on uprights, slants and tablets, and for formal lines such as “In Loving Memory”. It is especially common on older marble and early granite stones, where lettering was cut by hand with a chisel, and remains a first choice for families who want a traditional, timeless look.
Because it reads well at many sizes, Roman is often paired with a script for an epitaph or with Old English for a family name. On a companion stone the two sets of dates are normally in the same Roman, which is what the new final date has to match.
Adding a matching date
Measure the height of the existing digits, not the letters: on many stones the dates are cut smaller than the names. Then measure the gap between digits and the space around the dash, and note the finish (V-cut, flat or frosted).
If the original was hand cut, no font matches every letter, because each character was drawn by the cutter. Aim for the same proportions and contrast and the same height and spacing. Show the family the new date on a photo of the stone, next to the old one, before cutting.
- Photograph the stone square to its face and measure the polished face’s width and height.
- Measure the existing digits’ height, the spacing between them and where they sit on the stone.
- Write the new date in the same format as the existing one: abbreviations, punctuation and dash.
- Set it in the closest style, at the same height and spacing, on the same baseline.
- Check the new date beside the old one, on a photo or a 1:1 print held against the stone, before cutting.
Closest styles in Monumize
Monumize ships open-licensed (SIL OFL) look-alikes, not any foundry’s commercial Roman. Roman Serif is based on classical inscriptional capitals; Engraver’s Roman is finer and sharper; Flared Roman is softer. Compare them on your own photo and keep the closest.
Not sure which style your stone uses?
Monument shops can upload a photo of the stone: Monumize reads the dates already cut, ranks the closest styles in its catalog, and shows the new date outlined on the photo. The first job is free.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Roman the same as Times New Roman?
- No. Times is a newspaper typeface with its own proportions and lowercase. Monument Roman is a capital-letter style descended from carved inscriptions, with wider round letters and finer serifs.
- How do I tell Roman from Modified Roman?
- Look at the serifs and thin strokes. Roman has tapering, bracketed serifs and genuinely thin hairlines. Modified Roman has shorter, blunter serifs and heavier thin strokes so the letters survive stencil cutting and sandblasting.
- Can a new Roman date match hand-cut lettering exactly?
- Rarely. Hand-cut letters vary from character to character. A close match in style, height, spacing and finish is the realistic goal, and it is what the eye notices.