When Gutenberg began working with moveable type in the middle 1400s, he based his work on the familiar letter forms of the time--those used by monks to create their elaborate manuscripts. By making his printed texts resemble the more familiar, hand-lettered ones, Gutenberg provided for a natural progression from the older technology to the newer.
Fractur is the oldest continuously used font. Cut in Germany in the early 1500s, it was the national font of Germany until Hitler outlawed it in the 1930s because it was "too Jewish."
Old English was the most commonly used font for wedding invitations in the US until the 1950s when it was replaced with a script font called Park Ave.
