ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

AMPERSAND

A N D

An ampersand is a logogram representing the conjunction word “and”. The ampersand can be traced back to the 1st century A.D. The Latin word et was used, meaning and. The letters E and T occasionally were written together to form a ligature, originally written as two distinct letters but over time the ‘e’ and ‘t’ were combined. The E and T are still visible in certain typefaces today.

THROUGHTHE AGES

TRANSITIONAL

MODERN

SLAB SERIF

SANS SERIF

DIGITAL

TRANSTIONAL

MODERN

SLAB SERIF

SANS SERIF

DIGITAL

The 27th Character. Until relatively recently the English language was considered to have 27 characters in its alphabet, with the ampersand right after z. The recitation of the alphabet would end in: “X, Y, Z and per se and.” This last phrase was routinely slurred to “ampersand” and the term crept into common English usage by around 1837. The Scots and Scottish English name for & is epershand, derived from “et per se and”, with the same meaning.

The ampersand is not used within body copy, however it used to be - Eric Gill used it frequently to adjust line length when setting text - but modern usage has it pretty much limited to combining pronouns in titles, company names and credits.

Due to its nature now and how it is used it has turned into a character that allows for such freedom within type design. And often can say an awful lot about a typeface as it is one of the only characters to have so much freedom.

ANDPERSE

AND