Typographica

While Givry may not be what you’d immediately classify as a blackletter, for my buck the bâtarde flamande style fits the bill perfectly. Writing style from the 15th century? Check! Used north of the Alps? You bet’cha! Rooted in the territory of present-day France and Belgium? Oh my! But then again, so are most of the blackletter-styles that were later dubbed “Germanic.” As a font, Givry is a treat. Its character set contains ligatures and ligating elements; when a rounded letter is followed by another round, the two curves will overlap. This saves space and looks sweet at the same time.

Although slightly different, I see the bâtarde flamande as a good civilité alternative. Don’t get me wrong! The Civilité genre is cool. But you just can’t use it anymore. No one can—or will—want to read it. If you want a similar old school feeling, and a schwabacher or a rotunda just won’t hit it for you, specify Givry. If your subject matter is Francophile, then Givry is a more apt solution anyway; watch out, Charles VII! Givry is awesomely undertaken and worthy of recognition.

— Dan Reynolds writes about type wherever he can, on his own site and at iLoveTypography, Linotype.com, Typographica, or Germany’s Slanted magazine. A graduate of the University of Reading’s MATD program, he helps make fonts work at Linotype GmbH. This spring, he began teaching typeface design at the Hochschue Darmstadt.