The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Edwardian Script vs Elegy
Two commercial ITC scripts that share a bloodline: Edwardian Script is Ed Benguiat's 1994 formal pointed-pen script, and Elegy is Jim Wasco's 2010–2011 expansion of Benguiat's 1970 calligraphic ITC logotype into a full typeface. Edwardian Script is the restrained, widely bundled wedding-invitation classic, while Elegy is the flourished, OpenType-heavy showpiece.
Edwardian Script is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Mrs Saint Delafield, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Edwardian Script → Elegy is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Pinyon Script, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Elegy →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- Edwardian Script is modelled on a flexible steel-point pen, so its thicks and thins come from pressure rather than nib angle, giving even, upright-leaning connected hairlines.
- Elegy grew out of Benguiat's hand-lettered ITC logo and keeps some of that spontaneity, with roughly 1,546 glyphs and contextual alternates, discretionary ligatures, old-style and tabular figures, and fractions that need an OpenType-aware app to shine.
- Edwardian Script ships as two weights (Regular and Bold) and is bundled with Microsoft Office, so many readers already have it installed; Elegy is a single Regular style.
- Both are paid licences: Edwardian Script sells at around $41 per style on MyFonts, Elegy from about $30, so cost is a factor against either free alternative.
Edwardian Script
Reach for Edwardian Script when you need a safe, formal invitation or certificate script that clients already recognise and may already own via Office.
Elegy
Reach for Elegy when you want a more expressive, lettering-like script for logotypes, packaging, and display headlines and can set its alternates and ligatures in InDesign or a browser.