This document provides a history of the development of letters and writing systems from ancient Egypt to modern times. It discusses hieroglyphics from ancient Egypt dating back to 4000 BC, the earliest known writing system of cuneiform from 3250 BC in Mesopotamia, and the evolution of scripts from hieratic and demotic in Egypt in 2500 BC to the Phoenician, Greek and Roman alphabets. It then outlines key developments in lettering such as Carolingian lowercase letters in the 9th century, formal script in 1722, sans serif type in 1890, cartoon script in 1945 and automated lettering in 1960.

1. Lettering

2. Calligraphy
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03
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Typography
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Table of Contents
Lettering
Origin & Development of Letters
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3. Calligraphy
Calligraphy is the art of
writing letters with pressure-
sensitive tools, usually in a
script style. Today, you’ll also
often see people call it
“modern calligraphy,” “brush
calligraphy,” or “brush
lettering.”

4. Typography
Typography is the art of
creating repeatable
systems of letters (fonts &
typefaces) that can be
utilized by a machine.

5. Lettering
Hand lettering, or just
lettering, is the art of
drawing letters in any style.

6. Difference of terms

7. Origin & Development
of Letters

8. 4000 B.C. Egyptian
Hieroglyphics
The ancient Egyptians used the
distinctive script known today as
hieroglyphs (Greek for "sacred
words") for almost 4,000 years.
Hieroglyphs were written on
papyrus, carved in stone on tomb
and temple walls, and used to
decorate many objects of cultic
and daily life use.

9. 3250 B.C. Cuneiform
Writing
Cuneiform is a system
of writing first developed by the
ancient Sumerians of Mesopotam
ia 3500-3000 BCE.

10. 2500 B.C. Hieratic Script
and Demotic Script
The Egyptians introduced two kinds
of writing: the hieratic script used
by the priests and the demotic
script used by the merchants.

11. 1000 B.C. Phoenician
Alphabet
Hieratic writing was adopted by the
Phoenicians. It developed into an
alphabet of 22 letters.

12. 700 B.C. Greek Letters
The Phoenician alphabet was later
adopted by the Greeks. They also
introduced and developed the
vowel letters and contributed 13
letters of the Roman alphabet.

13. 200 B.C. Roman
Alphabet
The Romans introduced the 26
capital letters which are the basis
of modern-day alphabet. They
modified these capital letters into
more readable type, except j and u
which were not in Roman alphabet.

14. 9th Century Carolingian
Letters
During the reign of King
Charlemagne, the first holy
emperor, lowercase letters were
introduced and were known as the
Carolingian letters.

15. 1722 Formal Script
In 1722, Formal script was
introduced by the Germans, French,
and English. It is similar to longhand
writing but it was done in a more
artistic manner.

16. 1890 Sans Serif
Sans Serif, which literally
means “without serif” was
introduced by the English.

17. 1945 Cartoon Script
It was introduced by the
Americans.

18. 1960 Automation Letter
It was introduced in 1960.