A pictorial alphabet with “silhouetted characters in the shape
of people, animals, sprites, and various sorts of harlequins and
demonlike creatures” [Rakowski]. Originated as Alphabet
Diabolique (“devil’s alphabet”), a piece of lettering
designed by Michel Delaporte [Détournements
Mineurs] [Wikipedia] and
lithographed by Nicolas-Louis Delaunois in Paris, 1836. Some
sources credit “Désserts” as the designer [BnF],
but that refers to the printer, Alphonse
Desesserts.
Delaporte previously created related “Diableries”
in 1833 [BnF] and
another Alphabet Diabolique in 1835. The latter was
likewise lithographed by Delaunois, and printed by
Aubert [Musée
Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris].
The 1836 alphabet was digitized by David Rakowski and released
as shareware font named Bizarro in 1992, with proceeds
going to Columbia University’s Music Department. See also
More…
A pictorial alphabet with “silhouetted characters in the shape of people, animals, sprites, and various sorts of harlequins and demonlike creatures” [Rakowski]. Originated as Alphabet Diabolique (“devil’s alphabet”), a piece of lettering designed by Michel Delaporte [Détournements Mineurs] [Wikipedia] and lithographed by Nicolas-Louis Delaunois in Paris, 1836. Some sources credit “Désserts” as the designer [BnF], but that refers to the printer, Alphonse Desesserts.
Delaporte previously created related “Diableries” in 1833 [BnF] and another Alphabet Diabolique in 1835. The latter was likewise lithographed by Delaunois, and printed by Aubert [Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris].
The 1836 alphabet was digitized by David Rakowski and released as shareware font named Bizarro in 1992, with proceeds going to Columbia University’s Music Department. See also Netherworld (Scriptorium, 1993). Dieter Steffmann added the previously missing ‘W’ in 2000. Manfred Klein made another digitization named Silhous for Jeff in 2005. All these fonts are of low quality. See also Devilish (Celebrity Fontz, 2013).