This map, drawn by L. Henkel for the magazine Petermann's Geographical Reports (Petermann's Geographical Communications) in 1901, shows the predominant scripts in each region of Europe.
Unlike maps by Gottfried Hensel, This map by L. Henkel encompasses the most common alphabets and typefaces in each European country at the beginning of the 20th century. The most important ones shown on the map are as follows:
- In pink, the Antiqua font.
- In blue, the Fraktur typeface, a subgroup of Gothic script.
- In green, the Cyrillic alphabet.
- In brown, the Greek alphabet.
- In yellow, the Arabic alphabet.
- In white with pink lines, the Mongolian alphabet (only present in a small region near the mouth of the Volga).
This map highlights the importance that Arabic still had in the Balkans, given the presence of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the linguistic diversity that still existed in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.
The major shift from Fraktur to Antiqua typefaces in Germany took place under Adolf Hitler's regime, which banned the use of Fraktur. Although the ban was lifted after the end of the Second World War, Antiqua remained the preferred typeface in the region, with Fraktur falling into disuse.
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