The origin of St. Patrick Day dates to Ireland and the Feast of St. Patrick around A.D. 430. The writings in St. Patrick's time were primarily in an uncial script, which is an uppercase-only font derived from a Roman cursive script. You can get an Irish look and feel for your St. Patrick's Dayprojects using any of the fonts classified as Celtic. These fonts range frommedieval andGothic toGaelic andCarolingian.
Fonts called "Irish," "Gaelic," or "Celtic" might not be historically accurate to the time of St. Patrick, but theystill conveythe point. The Celticfontis a broad category for any style of font associated with Celts and Ireland's writing.
Some Celtic fonts are calligraphic or simple sans serif fonts adorned with Celtic knots or other Irish symbols. Dingbat symbols with a Celtic or Irish theme are often part of this category.
Font Libraries
Free font libraries featuring Celtic styles include:
- dafont.com(uncial,Carolingian,Gaelic, and otherCeltic-inspired free fonts)
- 1001 Free Fonts Celtic Fonts(Windows and Mac fonts in traditional and modern uncial, insular, and decorative Celtic styles)
- FontageSt. Patrick's Day Fonts(sans serif and decorative fonts adorned with shamrocks, four-leaf clovers, and other typical St. Patrick's Day imagery)
- ffonts.net Gothic Fonts(blackletter, uncial, and other fonts with an old manuscript feel)
- Eagle Fonts Gaelic-Ogham-Irish Fonts(uncial and insular script fonts)
You can purchase a large variety of Celtic-type fonts from My Fonts, Linotype, and Fonts.com. Check out the blackletter options, too.
Celtic-Style Fonts
Irish-looking fonts you can use include uncial, insular, Carolignian, blackletter, and Gaelic.
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Uncial and Half-Uncial Fonts
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Based on a third-century style of writing, uncial is majuscule, or "all capital," writing. The letters are unjoined and rounded with curved strokes.
Uncial and half-uncial scripts developed around the same time and look similar. Later styles had more flourishes and decorative letters. Different styles of uncial writing developed in various regions. Not all uncials are Irish; some look quite different fromothers.
Free Uncial Fonts
A few free uncial fonts are available, includingJGJ Uncial by Jeffrey Glen Jackson. Its uppercase letters are alarger form of the lowercase letters, and some punctuation marks are included.
Uncial Fonts to Buy
One of the largest font suppliers, Linotype, featuresOmnia Roman by K. Hoefer. This all-capital typeface offers a few alternative letterforms.
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Insular Script Fonts
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Initially developed from half-uncial scripts, this medieval-type script spread from Ireland to Europe. Its wedge-shaded ascenders are the letter parts that are drawn up past the body of a letter, like thetop stem of a "d" or "t." These fonts might have "i" and "j" without dots. The insular "G" resembles a "Z" with a tail.
Free Insular Fonts
TryKells SD by Steve Deffeyes, which is based on the lettering from the Book of Kells manuscript dating from A.D. 384.The font has uppercase and lowercase letters, including the insular "G" and "g," dotless "i" and "j," numbers, punctuation, symbols, and accented characters.
Rane Insular by Rane Knudsen is based on Knudsen's handwriting combined with an Irish insular script. The font set includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and some punctuation.
Insular Fonts to Buy
My Fonts offers799 Insular by Gilles Le Corre. This font set is inspired by the Latin script of the Celtic monasteries of Ireland. This slightly irregular typeface includes uppercase and lowercase letters with the insular "G," dotless "i," numbers, and punctuation.
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Carolingian Fonts
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Carolingian (from the reign of Charlemagne) is ascript-writing style that started in mainland Europe and made its way to Ireland and England. It was used until the end of the 11th century. A Carolingian script has uniformly sized rounded letters. It has many uncial features but is more legible.
Free Carolingian Fonts
Two free Carolingian-type fonts are available through dafont.com:Carolingia by William Boyd, which has uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation; andSt. Charles by Omega Font Labs.
St. Charles is a Carolingian script-inspired font with extra-long swooping strokes, numbers, some punctuation, and identical uppercase and lowercase letters. It comes in six styles, including outline and bold.
Carolingian Fonts to Buy
For amodern take on the Carolingian script, look toCarolina by Gottfried Pott from My Fonts.
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Blackletter Fonts
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Blackletter, also known as Gothic script, Old English or textura, is based on script lettering from the12th to 17th centuries in Europe.
Unlike therounded letters of the uncial and Carolingian scripts, blackletter has sharp, straight, sometimes spiky strokes. Some blackletter styles have a strong association with the German language. Today, blackletter is used to evoke an old-fashioned manuscript feel.
Free Blackletter Fonts
Free blackletter fonts includeCloister Black by Dieter Steffmann, which has uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation, symbols, and accented characters.Minim by Paul Lloyd offers regularand outline versions, uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and some punctuation.
Blackletter Fonts to Buy
Blackmoor by David Quay is available from Identifont. It's a slightly distressed, Old English medieval typeface.
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Gaelic Fonts
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Derived from the insular scripts of Ireland, Gaelic was developed specifically for writing Irish (Gaeilge). It is a popular choice for St. Patrick's Day in any language. Not all Gaelic-style fonts include the Gaelic letterforms needed for the Celtic family of languages.
Free Irish Gaelic Fonts
Gaeilge by Peter Rempel andCeltic Gaeligeby Susan K. Zalusky are available for free from dafont.com. Gaeilge has uppercase and lowercase letters, including dotless "i," distinctive insular-shaped "G," numbers, punctuation, symbols, accented characters, and some consonants with the dot above. Celtic Gaelige features identical uppercase and lowercase letters (except for size), including distinctive, insular-shaped "G," numbers, punctuation, symbols, "d" with a dot above, and "f" with a dot above.
Cló Gaelach (Twomey)is available free from Eagle Fonts. The font set includes mostly identical uppercase and lowercase letters (except for size) with insular "g" and some accented characters.
Irish Gaelic Fonts to Buy
EF Ossian Gaelic by Norbert Reiners is available to purchase on Font Shop. The font set includes uppercase and lowercase letters including insular "G," dotless "i," and other special Gaelic characters, numbers, punctuation, and symbols. Colmcilleby Colm and Dara O'Lochlainn is available for purchasefrom Linotype. It is a Gaelic-inspired text font.
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