Trajan is a serif

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

designed in 1989 by

Carol Twombly Carol Twombly (born June 13, 1959) is an American designer, best known for her type design. She worked as a type designer at Adobe Systems from 1988 through 1999, during which time she designed, or contributed to the design of, many typefaces, i ...

for Adobe. The design is based on the letterforms of ''capitalis monumentalis'' or

Roman square capitals Roman square capitals, also called ''capitalis monumentalis'', inscriptional capitals, elegant capitals and ''capitalis quadrata'', are an ancient Roman form of writing, and the basis for modern capital letters. Square capitals are characteriz ...

, as used for the inscription at the base of

Trajan's Column Trajan's Column ( it, Colonna Traiana, la, Columna Traiani) is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Ap ...

from which the typeface takes its name. Trajan is an all-capitals typeface, as the Romans did not use lowercase letters. Twombly created the design taking inspiration from a full-size picture of a rubbing of the inscription. It is well known for appearing on many film posters.

Background

The capitals on the Column of Trajan have long been an inspiration to many artists and students of lettering. The calligrapher and type designer

Edward Johnston Edward Johnston, CBE (11 February 1872 – 26 November 1944) was a British craftsman who is regarded, with Rudolf Koch, as the father of modern calligraphy, in the particular form of the broad-edged pen as a writing tool. He is most fa ...

in his book ''Writing & Illuminating & Lettering'' (1906) wrote that "the Roman capitals have held the supreme place among letters for readableness and beauty. They are the best forms for the grandest and most important inscriptions." Trajan letterforms were used for many years for signs in British public buildings, including government offices. Twombly's translation of the Trajan inscription into type is quite crisp and faithful. Many looser interpretations (often with an invented lowercase) predate Twombly's, particularly Emil Rudolf Weiss' "Weiss" of 1926,

Frederic Goudy Frederic William Goudy (, March 8, 1865 – May 11, 1947) was an American printer, artist and type designer whose typefaces include Copperplate Gothic, Goudy Old Style and Kennerley. He was one of the most prolific of American type designers and ...

's Forum Title, Hadriano and "Goudy Trajan", and Diotima by

Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse (2 January 1918 – 13 December 2019) was a German book binding, book-binder, calligrapher and type designer, typographer. She also designed #Typeface designs, several typefaces. She was the 1991 winner of the Frederic W. G ...

, while

Warren Chappell Warren Chappell (1904, Richmond, Virginia – March 26, 1991, Charlottesville, Virginia) was an American illustrator, book and type designer, and author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definiti ...

's "Trajanus" of 1939, while having similar forms for capitals has a markedly medieval lowercase. Many other examples of lettering and typefaces are based on Roman capitals, for instance lettering made under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Alastair Johnston's 1990 review of Trajan noted this heritage, saying that it "outdoes anything old Fred Goudy ever produced." Trajan was designed for display instead of printed text—specifically for use in large sizes. Twombly's digitisation of Trajan has become very popular, as seen in its widespread presence on

movie poster A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. T ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

shows, and book covers. A bold weight was added to Trajan when it was made digital. Twombly retired from Adobe and type design in 1999, but Adobe has continued to release versions in consultation with her. Trajan Pro was the initial OpenType version, which added central European language support and added small caps in the lowercase slots. In 2012 the existing OpenType version was significantly revised as "Trajan Pro 3," with Robert Slimbach adding four additional weights as well as Cyrillic and Greek glyphs. Adobe has also released a "Trajan Sans" companion face, forming a

font superfamily {{unsourced, date=March 2019 In typography, a font superfamily or typeface superfamily is a font family containing fonts that fall into multiple classifications. The norm in a superfamily is to start from an identical character shape; class-spec ...

. Neither version supports the archaic Latin vowels

long I Long i ( la, i longum or '' itterai longa''), written , is a variant of the letter i found in ancient and early medieval forms of the Latin script. History In inscriptions dating to the early Roman Empire, it is used frequently but inconsisten ...

or apex-V.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Trajan Pro 3
an
Trajan Sans
on Fontspring, Adobe's current font licensor
Fonts in Use

including detail of the ''capitalis monumentalis'' inscription.
Etched in Stone
a humorous animation regarding the use (or overuse) of Trajan in film titles.
Trajan is the movie font
a satirical video poking fun at the omnipresence of Trajan in the movie world. Incised typefaces Adobe typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1989 Typefaces designed by Carol Twombly Display typefaces Old style serif typefaces Unified serif and sans-serif typeface families Digital typefaces Latin-script typefaces