What font did the Declaration of Independence use?

Answer 1

The "fairly engrossed" (i.e. neatly written) official copy with the signatures of 56 representatives of the 13 colonies which ratified it, and whose general appearance is familiar to most Americans, was handwritten with a feather quill pen by clerk Timothy Matlack primarily in a style of lettering we now call copperplate or roundhand, with the first line in a simple Roman style, and the second line and some additional words in a style called blackletter. The first mechanically-printed copies of the Declaration, 200 of which were printed the night of July 4-5, 1776 by John Dunlap and now known as the "Dunlap Broadsides", at least 26 of which still exist, were printed in a typeface called Caslon, which is still popular today.

There are several computer fonts available for replicating the general style of the fairly engrossed Declaration. These include AL Patriot, American Scribe, National Archive, P22 Declaration Script, P22 Declaration Alternate, P22 Declaration Blackletter, US Declaration and vLetter Declaration. Beware that if you want to exactly duplicate the Declaration, only American Scribe and National Archive include the obsolete character known as the "long s", which appears several times in the Declaration.

For replicating the look of the Dunlap Broadsides, there are many official versions of Caslon and many Caslon look-alike fonts available.

Answer 2

It didn't use a "font". The engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence was written out in longhand, with India ink on parchment. This is the document on display in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The original document was later replicated on a copper plate by a skilled engraver so that copies could be printed on a printing press. After the engrossed copy was created, a number of printers mass-produced so-called "broadsides", where the handwriting was converted to movable type. Various fonts were used, depending on what the printer had available in his shop. You can get an overview of the physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence. The first broadsides were produced by John Dunlap, and they are, perhaps, the most famous. As of 2014, only 26 copies and fragments of copies are known to still exist. Some fonts used today that come close are American Scribe, National Archive, US Declaration, P22 Declaration.