Block letters are a form of writing in which the letters are upright, separated, and usually made without serifs. In English-speaking countries children are first taught to write in block letters (also called printed letters), and later may advance to cursive (joined) writing. Other countries (Poland, Italy, etc.) focus on cursive writing from the first grade. On official forms, one is often asked to write in block capital letters. This is because cursive handwriting, and especially signatures, can be hard to read. It is often misconstrued that one must write in capital letters when writing in block letters.
In at least one court case involving patents, trademarks and registration of designs, the term "block letters" was found to include both upper and lower case. (Fossil Inc v The Fossil Group )
In typography, the term block letters is applied to crude fonts formed by cutting a material such as wood or metal without the sophistication usually associated with professional type design in typography.
Famous quotes containing the words block and/or letters:
“Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the present. For what one has lived is at best comparable to a beautiful statue which has had all its limbs knocked off in transit, and now yields nothing but the precious block out of which the image of one’s future must be hewn.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“If you are one of the hewers of wood and drawers of small weekly paychecks, your letters will have to contain some few items of news or they will be accounted dry stuff.... But if you happen to be of a literary turn of mind, or are, in any way, likely to become famous, you may settle down to an afternoon of letter-writing on nothing more sprightly in the way of news than the shifting of the wind from south to south-east.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)