Talk:Gothic script

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I think this article should be merged with blackletter. It's different names for the same script. The disambiguation page gothic suggest that there were a distinction between the handwriting script called gothic script and a typing script called blackletter, but it seems to me that this distinction is artificial (inexistent outside wikipedia). I believe that the lable blackletter is preferrable because it's less ambiguous: There's no danger of confusion with the gothic alphabet. Additionally, when the term gothic was chosen in the renaissance, it was intended as a despective name for an "outdated" and "ugly" script (in the eyes of a renaissancer). J. 'mach' wust 23:25, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Well, I've always seen the script called "Gothic", and "blackletter" to me sounds like a typographical script, or a modern typeface approximating Gothic forms (which we might also call "Old English" or something). What do you think most people would search for, Gothic or blackletter? I guess I don't really mind either way. Adam Bishop 08:09, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

If I were German (I am actually), I'd search for Fraktur! :) This is more easily proven not to be accurate, since most sources agree that the fraktur is only a specific style (in typing and in calligraphy) of blackletter/gothic script (the most used one). I'd say the name we choose is not a question of what most people suppose it is, but of what is more accurate.

If the distinction between typographical and handwritten script is usual, then we should point that out. However, my impression is that there isn't much of a difference in use. If there were such a distinction, what is the common term for both?

And I forgot that gothic is also used to refer to sans-serif. J. 'mach' wust 14:22, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I think Gothic is a kind of blackletter, but not all blackletter is Gothic. Gothic "script" is handwriting, and blackletter comes after the printing press - although they did use Gothic as a printing type as well. I'm not sure...maybe I have notes about this somewhere... Adam Bishop 15:26, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)