Hebrew printers use two basic families of Hebrew type fonts: square, block letters, known as Assyrian script, and cursive script, known as Rashi script. The latter was not used by Rashi, contrary to popular misconception.

What is today known as Rashi script was originally the cursive script used by Spanish Jews, a modification of the usual square Assyrian script designed to expedite writing. The het, gimel and shin, for instance, are reduced by this script from two or three strokes to one each.

In 1475, twenty years after Gutenberg invented the printing press, the first properly dated Hebrew printed book appeared in Reggio di Calabria, Italy. This book was a Bible with Rashi's commentary. The script selected as the model for the typeface in the commentary came to be referred to Rashi script.

When Rashi script was used to convey Yiddish quotes in women's books, it became known as vabertaytsh (women's Yiddish translation).

It is quite likely that this script was popularized by the famous Bible with commentaries, Mikra'ot Gedolot, published by Daniel Bomberg in 1517. Bomberg, a Christian printer of Hebrew books, published more than 200 Hebrew books in his Venice printing house. In Mikra'ot Gedolot, he placed Rashi's commentary on the inside of each page, towards the binding, and Abraham ibn Ezra's commentary on the outside of each page. He also included the Targum, the Aramaic translation and commentary to the text, and Ramban's (Nahmanides) commentary at the bottom. In order to distinguish these commentaries from the central Bible text, Bomberg printed them in the cursive "Rashi script" type. Hence printers began to standardly employ this semi-cursive font for commentaries.

This article is take from the Jewish Heritage Online Magazine