Typeface: Brush Script

So far I've been making posts about typefaces used for writing normal texts. However, there's another important category of typefaces: decorative typefaces. It's more accurate to talk about decorative fonts, because in most cases there's only one version, not a whole family. Decorative fonts are used for advertising purposes, on posters or banners, not for longer texts.

Brush Script is a font that imitates writing with a thick brush, rather than a normal ink pen. It's a cursive font, in which the small letters link with one another. It was designed in 1942, and it became so popular that within a few years it was overused. Nowadays it looks nostalgic. There's a car repair garage near where I live, and the use of this font on its nameplate immediately makes the business look old-fashioned.

It's a visually appealing font, but as you can see in the character table, there's a break between the small letters W and X.

This example shows that the fault lies with the X. The small X is a design error. To create a link the upper left serif could have been extended, as in the small J, or a small serif could have been added to the bottom left corner. I prefer the former solution.

This is a font I use frequently, but only for one text. I use it for my digital signature when I write a letter. I always write my signature in double the size of the text, i.e. if I write a letter in 12 point Century Schoolbook, I sign my name in 24 point Brush Script. That's something I can recommend to anyone who doesn't have an X in his name.