EN
The Lithuanian traditions of writing were formed in the cultural context of Europe long ago. This article highlights the main characteristics of the Lithuanian alphabet and writing: the spread of the Gothic-type and Latin antiqua in the sixteenth and later centuries, the failed attempts to introduce the Russian 'grazhdanka' at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The main principles of Lithuanian orthography, phonetic, morphologic and traditional (etymologic) are introduced. The traditions and innovations of Lithuanian writing are discussed in the context of the twenty-first century.