leo academyBeta
Handbook

Capital M · secretary hand

Tall M

Unit 5

A tall M with a long first stroke.

When is it a capital?

Capital if it has a flat hitch or loop on top, unless it is no taller than a, e or o; also capital if it is taller than the letters around it. A lead-in swoop alone does not decide it.

Model letter

McKerrow (1927), fig. 23, no. 2 · public domain

In practice lines

Examples of this form are on their way

Don’t confuse it with

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Other forms of capital M

minim M
Model letters: R. B. McKerrow, An Introduction to Bibliography (1927); Jean de Beauchesne & John Baildon, A Booke Containing Divers Sortes of Hands (1570 and 1581); Giovambattista Palatino, Libro nel qual s’insegna a scrivere (1550); and manuscripts in the Folger Shakespeare Library; all public domain. They stand in until Leo’s own model letters are drawn. Secretary letters typeset in Joscelyn by Peter S. Baker (SIL Open Font License).