In Latin-script typography, roman is one of the three main kinds of historical type, alongside blackletter and italic. Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 1400s, based on the pairing of inscriptional capitals used in ancient Rome with Carolingian minuscules developed in the Holy Roman Empire.
During the early Renaissance, roman and italic type were used separately. Today, roman and italic type are mixed, and most typefaces are composed of an upright roman style with an associated italic or oblique style.
Popular roman typefaces include Bembo, Baskerville, Caslon, Bodoni, Times Roman and Garamond.
The name roman is customarily applied uncapitalized distinguishing early Italian typefaces of the Renaissance period and most subsequent upright types based on them, in contrast to Roman letters dating from classical antiquity.
Famous quotes containing the words roman and/or type:
“The Roman Road runs straight and bare
As the pale parting-line in hair
Across the heath.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“To put it rather bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1951)