Writing (from Latin: “scribere” with the pen on a blackboard) marks the recording of characters, letters, numbers or musical notes. Its counterpart is reading; the process to understand the information and ideas. Writing is an elementary cultural technique and one of the basic skills. The history of writing is inextricably linked to the history of scripture.

 

Alphabet: The Story of Writing

 

 

Part I: The making of letters

After an introduction and shots of lettering on various different kinds of signage the film goes back in time and discusses the development of letterforms including: · cave paintings, clay tablets, hieroglyphics, papyrus, …

Part II: The pen is mightier than the sword

Focuses on manuscript production from the end of the Roman Empire including: the dark ages, the development of lowercase, making ink, …