Percy John Delf Smith[a] RDI (March 1882 – 30 October 1948)[2][3] was a British artist who worked in engraving, painting, lettering, calligraphy and book design.

"[12][13][14] Delf Smith shared this style, naming his workshop the Roman Lettering Company[15] and commenting that Roman lettering has "content and atmosphere, and good examples convey a sense of stability and satisfaction",[16] although his textbooks showed a wide range of styles and work by other artists and in other writing systems.

[17] During the First World War, Delf Smith enlisted in the Royal Marines as a volunteer, serving on the Western Front in France.

[18] A lot of his war service was spent digging trenches behind the front lines, at one point coming under bombardment, seeing four men killed and six wounded nearby.

[19] Finding sketching unsatisfying, he requested that his parents send him some copper plates and he created drypoint engravings of the war around Thiepval before and after being invalided out from France in June 1917.

[20][21][22][b][25][26] After his set of realistic depictions of the battlefield, he created a later series of seven prints, Dance of Death, updating the medieval imagery of the dance of death to the war:[27][28][29][30] After the war, Delf Smith returned to London, where he worked as a designer and artist through his company, the Dorno Workshop and Studio (earlier Dorian Workshop and Studio),[31] creating and executing designs for clients including The Sunday Times,[32] the National Museum of Wales,[33] King's College London,[34] Southampton Civic Centre,[35] the BBC,[36] the Boy Scouts Association[37] and London Transport.