How it works
Gothic font numbers have to come from a real font: Unicode has Fraktur letters to paste and no Fraktur digits. This page sets 12.05.1998 in 11 gothic faces on two printable pages. Type your own date, a year or 444.
Read the full guide
Numbers that line up, numbers that hang
Seven faces draw lining figures, every numeral about as tall as a capital: UnifrakturCook, UnifrakturMaguntia, Pirata One, New Rocker, Metal Mania, MedievalSharp and Engagement. Grenze Gotisch, Almendra, Uncial Antiqua and Metamorphous draw old-style figures: 0, 1 and 2 stay short, 6 and 8 rise, and 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 hang below the line. Lining figures reached printing type only in 1788.
Telling 1 from 7, and 1 from I
Every 7 here has a full top bar, so 1 and 7 never swap. The risk is 1 against a capital I. Almendra draws 1 as a short I with a serif at each end, so 13 reads as I3. Metal Mania makes both a chipped bar. UnifrakturCook adds a long flag on the left.
Tips
- For a small tattoo, shrink the PNG to real size: Pirata One's 0, 6, 8 and 9 close up first.
- Sheet: Letter grid is 0 to 9 in one face (Next style changes it), Banner pages one numeral a page.
- Hollow prints outlines to trace, cut as a stencil or colour in. Pen weight thickens hairlines in MedievalSharp and Metamorphous.
Questions and answers
Which is the 444 old english font?
Old English is the everyday name for blackletter, so start with the six faces on page one. Tap 444 to compare. UnifrakturCook's 4 is closed, heavy and leaning. New Rocker's is notched. Metal Mania's is open at the top, with a spike below the line.
Why do pasted gothic letters leave my numbers plain?
Those are Unicode characters, not a font. Unicode has Fraktur and bold Fraktur letters, and digits in five styles only: bold, double-struck, sans-serif, sans-serif bold and monospace. No Fraktur 4 exists to paste, so this page draws one.
Did blackletter always have these numerals?
No. Blackletter dates from about the late 12th century. Arabic numerals stayed mostly in northern Italy until printing spread them in the 15th. An early blackletter page is likelier to give its year in Roman numerals.