Bensgothic and Bensgothic Ligatures computer fonts  1998 Harold Lohner  All Rights Reserved.

These fonts are SHAREWARE. If after using Bensgothic you send me the shareware fee of $5, I'll send you the companion font of ligatures.

HLohner@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/fontner

BENSGOTHIC
These fonts were produced  in conjunction with the exhibition WINTER SOLSTICE/contemporary traditions at the Rice Gallery in Albany, New York.  I was invited to make something and I made Christmas cards using these fonts.

Making, sending, and receiving Christmas cards is one of my favorite holiday traditions, as is the singing of Christmas carols.  Ive made my own cards many years, using whatever medium I was into at the time. This year its computer typography (realized through photocopy and rubber stamps.)  By making the computer fonts available to you, its now possible to have a scribe letter your own words!

For the card I first created a font based on a particular lettering style of the artist Ben Shahn, and then a companion font of ligaturesjoined lettersto further create the impression of hand lettering. This style, which Shahn applied to psalms, Christmas cards, posters, and many other items, suggests inscriptional capitals like those of Byzantine mosaics, the Bayeux tapestry, or medieval manuscripts.

The name Bensgothic was chosen partly for its appearance and with the awareness  that it can only add confusion.  The word gothic in the arts and history is overburdened with many meanings, often contradictory or multi-layered.  (In American typographic terminology gothic refers to typefaces also described as sans serif; in Britain, gothic fonts are what we call blackletter.  Bensgothic is neither of those.)  Gothic is often first applied by detractors, later to be adopted as a badge of honor.  It can refer to things that suggest an unspecified past that nowto sophisticated, modern eyesmay seem somewhat quaint, crude, or mysterious.  Bensgothic is clumsy by design.  Its outlines are bumpy, like ink applied to rough paper. The uneven letterforms and alternate characters suggest drawn by hand, because they were, first by Shahn and then by me.

USING THE FONTS
With the exceptions of a dotted I and J, Bensgothic is an uppercase font.  To give a more random feel, a second version of each letter is located in the lowercase position.  A message will look different in all lowercase, ALL CAPITALS, or rAndoM CapS; the latter might be your best alternative where there are doubled or frequently occurring characters.

LIGATURES
Ligatures are joined letters.  In good quality traditional printing, you may notice ff, fi, ffi, fl, and ffl ligatures, designed to avoid ugly collisions between those letter combinations.  Some modern fonts have been designed to eliminate the need for ligatures; other contemporary fontssuch as Emigres Mrs. Eaveshave obsessively inclusive ligature sets.  Ligatures do not appear only in printing; most peoples handwriting contains some ligatures too, such as tt.  Gutenbergs desire to recreate the beauty of handlettering in movable type lead him to create scores of ligated characters.  It is said that that overreaching perfectionism lost him money. 

After seeing your text in Bensgothic, you may choose to go back and replace letter combinations with characters from the Bensgothic Ligatures font.  (Be sure youve finished your copy editing and spell checking because the inserted ligatures will give you trouble!)  Here are some to get you started.  


/	NN
0	AB  
1	FF 
2	ST
3	NT 
4	SH 
5	PL   
6	HR 
8	DD 
9	OO 
<	UD 
=	NA
>	UA
@	AT
A	AL
B	AP
C	AN
D	AV
E	AD
F	AM
G	AR
H	HE
I	CH
J	HT
K	IT
L	L*
M	ME
N	MM
O	MA
P	NE
Q	PR
R	UR
S	TE
T	T*
U	UE
V	VE
W	TW
X	UR
Y	WH
Z	CO
[	CY
\	NK
]	MB
^	CC

Use your Key Caps or Character Map utility to locate all the available special ligatures, stars, and other .  Not every two-letter combination is provided as a ligature, nor is it necessary or desirable.  The uppercase L combines with a number of smaller, raised letters located in the lowercase positions.  Similarly, the uppercase T combines with smaller letters, usually located in the option+ positions on the Mac.

This version does not include accented characters.  This is due in part due to the lack of accents in the source, and in turn in the kinds of texts Shahn was evoking.  Providing alternate characters and ligatures occupied most of my time and the character slots.  Try writing them in!

BEN SHAHN 
(18981969)  
Painter, printmaker, muralist, activist... The prayers and psalms of the Old Testament and its ancient Hebrew script made
a lasting impression on young Shahn.... The persistent lyricism and inimitable lettering evident throughout his entire artistic oeuvre are firmly rooted in the strong Jewish traditions of his youth.... In his serigraphs, lithographs, paintings, and posters, the artists moral outrage at injustice and intolerance, deep sympathy for the disadvantaged, and wry sense of humor appear and reappear in new settings and altered circumstances.
from Prints and Posters of Ben Shahn 
by Kenneth W. Prescott