Letterforms and typography Cyrillic script

cyrillic uppercase , lowercase letter forms not differentiated in latin typography. upright cyrillic lowercase letters small capitals (with exceptions: cyrillic ⟨а⟩, ⟨е⟩, ⟨і⟩, ⟨ј⟩, ⟨р⟩, , ⟨у⟩ adopted western lowercase shapes, lowercase ⟨ф⟩ typically designed under influence of latin ⟨p⟩, lowercase ⟨б⟩, ⟨ђ⟩ , ⟨ћ⟩ traditional handwritten forms), although good-quality cyrillic typeface still include separate small-caps glyphs.

cyrillic fonts, latin ones, have roman , italic types (practically popular modern fonts include parallel sets of latin , cyrillic letters, many glyphs, uppercase lowercase, shared both). however, native font terminology in slavic languages (for example, in russian) not use words roman , italic in sense. instead, nomenclature follows german naming patterns:

cyrillic letters in cursive



roman type called pryamoy shrift ( upright type )—compare normalschrift ( regular type ) in german
italic type called kursiv ( cursive ) or kursivniy shrift ( cursive type )—from german word kursive, meaning italic typefaces , not cursive writing
cursive handwriting rukopisniy shrift ( hand-written type ) in russian—in german: kurrentschrift or laufschrift, both meaning literally running type

as in latin typography, sans-serif face may have mechanically sloped oblique type (naklonniy shrift— sloped , or slanted type ) instead of italic.

similarly latin fonts, italic , cursive types of many cyrillic letters (typically lowercase; uppercase hand-written or stylish types) different upright roman types. in cases, correspondence between uppercase , lowercase glyphs not coincide in latin , cyrillic fonts: example, italic cyrillic ⟨т⟩ lowercase counterpart of ⟨Т⟩ not of ⟨М⟩.

a boldfaced type called poluzhirniy shrift ( semi-bold type ), because there existed boldfaced shapes have been out of use since beginning of 20th century. bold italic combination (bold slanted) not exist font families.

specific russian (top), proper serbian-macedonian (middle) , bulgarian (bottom) letters

in standard serbian, in macedonian, italic , cursive letters different used in other languages. these letter shapes used in upright fonts well, advertisements, road signs, inscriptions, posters , like, less in newspapers or books. cyrillic lowercase ⟨б⟩ has different design both in roman , italic types, similar lowercase greek letter delta, ⟨δ⟩.

the following table shows differences between upright , italic cyrillic letters of russian alphabet. italic forms different upright analogues, or confusing users of latin alphabet, highlighted.

note: in fonts or styles, lowercase italic cyrillic ⟨д⟩ (⟨д⟩) may latin ⟨g⟩ , lowercase italic cyrillic ⟨т⟩ (⟨т⟩) may capital italic ⟨t⟩ (⟨t⟩), small.

distribution of cyrillic script worldwide.