Letters accompany us from birth. Initially invisible to us in documents and forms, they become visible at the latest from the first day of school until the end of our lives and beyond. Even on our gravestones, letters assert that we once existed. But what do we know about these faithful companions? Why do we write the way we do? Why do Western Europeans and Americans write differently than Russians and Greeks or Jews and Arabs? The different alphabets of these peoples share the same origin: Egyptian hieroglyphs! However, this book is not only about the common roots of our alphabets, but primarily about the fates of the various writing styles that we encounter now or again in the present. Why are there angular and round, slanted and upright, elegant and clumsy, or simple and complicated letters? Anyone who works with texts should reflect on this.