Rashi script

It was taken as a model by early Hebrew typographers such as Abraham Garton, the Soncino family and Daniel Bomberg in their editions of commented texts (such as the Mikraot Gedolot and the Talmud, in which Rashi's commentaries prominently figure).

[1] The initial development of typefaces for the printing press was often anchored in a pre-existing manuscript culture.

In the case of the Hebrew press, the tradition of using square or block letters were cast for Biblical and other important works prevailed.

However, secondary religious texts such as rabbinic commentaries, were commonly set with a semi-cursive form of Sephardic origin, ultimately normalised as the Rashi typeface.

To express additional fricative sounds found in Ladino, the alphabet is expanded by adding diacritic marks to existing letters.

Complete Hebrew alphabet in Rashi script (right to left)
Example of text written in Rashi script from a 19th century print of Psalm 138 in Ladino language; additional letters representing distinct Ladino phonemes can be seen, modified by the curved varrica rafe diacritic placed atop a letter (titles/headings are in block print).