Ampersand: A Symbol That Refuses To Die - Pixartprinting

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The ampersand (&) is one of the most unique and interesting typographic characters. This symbol, widely used and appreciated by many type designers for its great creative potential, has ancient origins that few people are aware of.

& was the final letter in the English alphabet until the early twentieth century; the alphabet ended “X, Y, Z and per-se and”, and the contraction of and-per-se-and gave rise to its current name.

Although it was brought into common use by the British, the ampersand was first created in the first century BC by the Roman slave Marcus Tullius Tiro, who was Cicero’s personal secretary. Even after he was made a freeman, Tiro continued to transcribe Cicero’s texts, and by 63 BC he had developed a system of shorthand to speed up the writing process, known as the Tironian Notes.

From the second half of the eighth century AD onwards, the ampersand was used widely by scribes. The aim of this and many other ligatures was to fit as many words as possible onto one line. Being able to vary the length of words was very useful so every line could be filled with a justified layout (where all the rows of a column of text are aligned vertically at both the left and the right).

From left to right: Old Roman Cursive, 79 BC; New Roman Cursive, 350 AD; ninth century Scottish writing; Carolingian Minuscule, c. 810 AD; Humanist Minuscule, 1453; William Caslon, 1728 (London).

The ampersand in contemporary typography

These historic origins are clear in certain fonts with a more obvious separation between the letters, such as Rotis Sans, Trebuchet and Bebas Neue.

Rotis Sans Regular, Trebuchet Regular and Bebas Neue Regular

In addition to these simple ampersands, used mostly in Roman fonts, there is also a cursive style with more pronounced curves, influenced by calligraphy. This style is generally very elegant, and has given rise to a range of genuinely creative and diverse symbols.