Papyrus (typeface)
typeface
Papyrus is a typeface designed by Chris Costello and released by Letraset in 1983. It has a number of distinctive characteristics, including rough edges, irregular curves, and high horizontal strokes in the capitals. It is meant to emulate what a written font would have looked like when written on papyrus, which is textured and uneven.
History and overview
Costello created the font in 1982, when he was 23 years old and just out of college. He had been studying the Bible and came onto the idea of what a written font would have looked like during biblical times in the Middle East. He hand-drew the font over a period of six months by means of calligraphy pen and textured paper. Costello described his goal as a font that would represent what English language texts would have looked like if written on papyrus 2,000 years ago. The font, titled Papyrus, was released by Letraset in 1983.
Papyrus has a number of distinctive characteristics, including rough edges, irregular curves, and high horizontal strokes in the capitals. ITC, the current owner of the typeface, describes it as an "unusual roman typeface [that] effectively merges the elegance of a traditional roman letterform with the hand-crafted look of highly skilled calligraphy".
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This entry incorporates text from “Papyrus (typeface)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.