RE: The glyph of the CAPITAL SHARP S

From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Thu May 10 2007 - 00:02:40 CDT

  • Next message: John Hudson: "Re: The glyph of the CAPITAL SHARP S"

    I don't like the concept of borrowing the gamma, because when it is ligated, it becomes too much like an I. Such thing does not exists between E and F despite the lowercase are very different.

    The suggestion doss not pass the scanner test for a modern font, and still has problems with small size printing in newspaper articles or free ads.

    And semantically, creating a ligature by using a capital gamma looks too strange...

    > -----Message d'origine-----
    > De : unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] De la
    > part de Adam Twardoch
    > Envoyé : jeudi 10 mai 2007 01:43
    > À : Unicode Discussion
    > Cc : Michael Everson; John Hudson
    > Objet : Re: The glyph of the CAPITAL SHARP S
    >
    > In most of the middle ages and the period up until the 19th century, the
    > long s ("ſ") and "f" were closely related, "f" being simply a "ſ" with a
    > stroke going through. The same, very primitive graphic relation exists
    > between the prototypic shapes of the Greek letters gamma (Γ) and digamma
    > (Ϝ). Since the minuscule "f" always has been a "ſ" with a middle stroke,
    > then the capital "F" might also be considered an uppercase "ſ" with a
    > stroke going through. Of course an uppercase long s never existed, but
    > this relation may be helpful when constructing the uppercase ß.
    >
    > Because I think that *if* the Latin alphabet ever used or needed another
    > capital S, the preferred shape could be that of a gamma (Γ). This is a
    > simple, effective shape that maintains a stylistic relation to the
    > lowercase long s that is typical of other uppercase-to-lowercase
    > relations.
    >
    > If we look at the relations between Aa Ee Ff Mm Pp, we will notice that
    > sharp, edgy connections in the uppercase are related to more smooth,
    > round connections in the lowercase. If "F" developed into "f" in a
    > cursive hand, then it is very easy to imagine that a cursive rendition
    > of the "Γ" shape might, indeed, look very much like "ſ".
    >
    > This is an important observation when thinking about the shape of an
    > uppercase "ß": I assert that the shape of uppercase "ß" must be "edgier"
    > than the lowercase. In short, I think that the left part of uppercase ß
    > should be "Γ".
    >
    > What about the right part? Here, I would call to exploit the double
    > origin of "ß", which developed paralelly as a ligature of "ſs" as well
    > as of "ſz" (where the "z" historically used the "ʒ" shape, so "ſʒ").
    >
    > These days, the lowercase "ß" is typically derived from the ligated form
    > of "ſs". For visual dissimilation purposes -- to strongly set apart the
    > lowercase and the (new) uppercase "ß" I would derive the uppercase "ß"
    > from a ligation of the hypothetical uppercase "ſ" (i.e. "Γ") and the
    > shape of "the other" origin of "ß", i.e. of the historical "Z" shape.
    >
    > In short, I believe that the best graphical rendition of an uppercase
    > "ß" will be a well-designed ligature that incorporates these shapes: "ΓƷ"
    >
    > I have made a small simulation using Garamond Premier (please excuse my
    > poor drawing abilities):
    >
    > http://www.twardoch.com/tmp/germandbls_garamond.png
    >
    > On a related matter, at the exhibition "Neue Baukunst. Berlin um 1800",
    > which is on display at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin until May 28,
    > I have discovered a fantastic calligraphic lowercase "ß" shape, in which
    > the "long s" part connects to the BOTTOM and not to the top of the
    > following "short s". Please take a look:
    >
    > http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamt/490547406/
    >
    > This got my imagination going.
    >
    > I have collected and summarized the points that I made so far on this
    > list, and opened a new topic at Typophile:
    > http://typophile.com/node/33647
    >
    > Typophile may be more appropriate to discuss questions of glyph design.
    >
    > Regards,
    > Adam
    >
    > --
    >
    > Adam Twardoch
    > | Language Typography Unicode Fonts OpenType
    > | twardoch.com | silesian.com | fontlab.net
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
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