Alfred John Fairbank

Alfred John Fairbank CBE (12 July 1895 – 14 March 1982) was a British calligrapher and author on handwriting.

Influenced by Edward Johnston, Fairbank was a founding member of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators in 1921, and became chairman. He was involved in the foundation of the Society for Italic Handwriting in 1952; his work and 1932 textbook A Handwriting Manual were influential on the italic script handwriting taught in British schools. His portrait was painted by Anna Hornby. For Penguin Books he wrote A Book of Scripts, on writing systems used throughout the world. Fairbanks was a civil servant who spent his professional career working at the Admiralty in London and Bath; he retired to Hove on the south coast and lectured at what is now the University of Brighton after his retirement.

Fairbank also designed one upright italic typeface for Monotype. It was named "Bembo Condensed Italic", Monotype series 294 as part of their Bembo family, a name which irritated Fairbank who thought it should have been kept as an independent design. This face was for the composition caster in metal type only available in 4 sizes: 10, 12, 13 and 16pt. The last size was made for large composition. It was digitised in 2004 as "Fairbank".

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