Serifs with Swashes

Stephen Coles

Last edited May 04, 2014

Serif typefaces with swash or decorative glyphs for display work or embellishing text. These alternate forms are typically ornamental capitals or long-tailed ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘n’, ‘r’, ‘t’ and ‘z’ letters for ending a line with a flourish. Many of these fonts are available in OpenType which is recommended for the most convenient access to alternate glyphs.

A note on the families at the bottom of this page: to view swashes and alternates in some OpenType fonts you may be need to click through to their Single Font pages. Some families in legacy formats store their swashes and alternates in “Alt” or “Expert” fonts.

The Englishman William Caslon punchcut many roman, italic, and non-Latin typefaces from 1720 until his death in 1766. At that time most types were being imported to England from Dutch sources, so Caslon was influenced by the characteristics of Dutch types. He did, however, achieve a level of craft that enabled his recognition as the first great English punchcutter. Caslon's roman became so... Read More

Claude Garamond (ca. 1480-1561) cut types for the Parisian scholar-printer Robert Estienne in the first part of the sixteenth century, basing his romans on the types cut by Francesco Griffo for Venetian printer Aldus Manutius in 1495. Garamond refined his romans in later versions, adding his own concepts as he developed his skills as a punchcutter. After his death in 1561, the Garamond punches... Read More

Brioso is a new typeface family designed in the calligraphic tradition of the Latin alphabet. Brioso displays the look of a fi nely-penned roman and italic script, retaining the immediacy of hand lettering while having the scope and functionality of a contemporary composition family. Brioso blends the humanity of written forms with the clarity of digital design, allowing designers to set pages... Read More