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:
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles...”
—Bible: New Testament, 1 Corinthians 1:22-3.
“American thinking, when it concerns itself with beautiful letters as when it concerns itself with religious dogma or political theory, is extraordinarily timid and superficial ... [I]t evades the genuinely serious problems of art and life as if they were stringently taboo ... [T]he outward virtues it undoubtedly shows are always the virtues, not of profundity, not of courage, not of originality, but merely those of an emasculated and often very trashy dilettantism.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)