Aswash is atypographical flourish, such as an exaggeratedserif, terminal, tail, entry stroke, etc., on aglyph.^[1][2][3]The use of swash characters dates back to at least the 16th century, as they can be seen inLudovico Vicentino degli Arrighi'sLa Operina, which is dated 1522. As withitalic type in general, they were inspired by the conventions of period handwriting.^[4] Arrighi's designs influenced designers in Italy and particularly in France.^[5]

Most typefaces with swashes are serif fonts, among which (if present) they are often found solely in italics. Advanced digital fonts often supply two italic designs: one with swashes and a more restrained standard italic.

Amongold-style typefaces, some releases ofCaslon, such asAdobe Caslon, andGaramond, includingAdobe Garamond Pro andEB Garamond, have swash designs.^[6][7] Old-style typefaces which include swashes but do not follow a specific historical model includeMinion byRobert Slimbach and Nexus byMartin Majoor.^[8][9]

Amongtransitional typefaces,Baskerville's original design has swashes onJ, N, Q andT. Some revivals remove these, while others may add more.Mrs. Eaves has a particularly large number.^[10]

Didone fonts with swashes includeSurveyor andITCBodoni.^[11][12]

Sans-serif fonts with swashes are rarer, but some were released in theArt Deco andStreamline Moderne style of the 1930s, including forTempo^[13] andSemplicità.^[14] Classiq by Yamaoka Yasuhiro, based on Garamond, contains swash italic designs, as doGoudy'sSans Serif Light Italic andMr Eaves byZuzana Licko, a sans-serif derivative of her serif familyMrs Eaves.^[15] Helvetica Flair, a redesign ofHelvetica with swashes by Phil Martin, is considered a hallmark of 1970s design, and has never been issued digitally. It is considered to be a highly conflicted design, as Helvetica is seen as a spare and rational typeface and swashes are ostentatious: font designerMark Simonson described it as "almost sacrilegious".Martin would later recall being accused of "typographic incest" by one German writer for creating it.^[16][17]

As swashes are based on period handwriting,script typefaces with swashes are common, and includeZapf Chancery andZapfino, both byHermann Zapf.

Some historical revivals add optional swashes to designs that did not originally have them to produce a more varied design. For example, Adobe Garamond Pro's swash design is based not on the printing ofClaude Garamond himself but on designs by his younger contemporaryRobert Granjon.^[18] The original Caslon italic had swashes only on the lettersJQTY; others have been added since by revivals of his designs.^[19][a]

• 
  Extensive use of swashes in a 1560 edition ofCalvin. Swashes are used on capitals throughout and on many letters at the end of words too. This use would probably now be considered excessive.
• 
  Helvetica Flair, a redesign of the sans-serif fontHelvetica with swashes
• 
  Flamboyant swashes in theZapfinotypeface

Notes

• Typography

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