Blackletter, also known as
Gothic script,
Gothic minuscule, or
Textura, was a
script used throughout
Western Europe from approximately 1150 to well into the 17th century. It continued to be used for the
German language until the 20th century.
Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of Blackletter faces is incorrectly referred to as Fraktur. Blackletter is sometimes called
Old English, but it is not to be confused with the
Old English language, despite the popular, though mistaken, belief that the language was written with blackletter. The Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, language predates blackletter by many centuries, and was itself written in the
insular script, or
Futhorc runes before that.