Schön schreiben, eine Kunst

Writing beautifully is an art. But written text must be legible. The small number of elements that make up the alphabet and the long-established set of forms are helpful to the writing hand in its endeavor. But reading unfamiliar handwriting often leaves the reader perplexed, and when examining older handwritten or printed texts, one encounters unfamiliar letterforms. The time-honored building blocks of the alphabet are shaped by history and its stylistic forces no less than by personality and its expressive abilities. The value of legibility is obviously relative, and the statement made at the outset can only have limited meaning in the mouth of a contemporary. Still, this book is loaded with beautiful letters. Whether or not they are legible will have to do with your experience. Have you every been experienced? Maybe this is what Jimi Hendrix was singing about.