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The spread of printing to cities both in the north and in Italy ensured that there was great variety in the texts chosen for printing and the styles in which they appeared.

Many early typefaces were modelled on local forms of writing or derived from the various European forms of Gothic script, but there were also some derived from documentary scripts ( such as most of Caxton's types ), and, particularly in Italy, types modelled on handwritten scripts and calligraphy employed by humanists.