Re: The glyph of the CAPITAL SHARP S

From: Henning Brunzel (muhgnu@yahoo.de)
Date: Fri May 11 2007 - 06:20:23 CDT

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    > My native German eye likes 3b most, followed by 3a, followed by 3c.
    > 3f (and 3e) look too lower case too me -- they interrupt reading flow.

    My native German eyes agree, with seeing the best choices as 3a, 3b and 3c.
    Though I'm not sure about which of these would work best.

    The teardrop ending in the 2x-series has some kind of lower case feel, it just
    doesn't look right. While the serif in the middle of the glyph in the 3x-series
    is somehow odd, it still works for me.

    I think, Germans have developed some kind of fallback mechanism, that when they
    see a B- or beta-like shape in a lowercase context, they immediately see an
    eszett. I once read an article, scanned and OCRed in a way, that all the ßs
    ended as Bs. It wasn't nice, but readable.

    But from my time at the Bundeswehr, I remember all uppercase nametags with
    lowercase B-shape ßs, that just didn't work - everybody was seeing Bs.

    So, I think, the B-shapes e and f won't work.

    I like the slightly cyrillic look of example d and I can imagine using fonts
    with a shape like that, but as a demonstration case for a code chart, it seems
    too esoteric.

    Which leaves 3a, 3b and 3c. These are all more or less variations on the shape
    from the old GDR-Duden, which is probably the most prominent example of this
    character anyway.

    3c used to be my favorite, but the more I look at it, the more I doubt my first
    impression. (Though glyphs should work at first sight, not after staring at
    them for days)

    I would really like to see a version of 3a with a shortened lower loop and a
    serif ending that is moved slightly to the right.

    But I think, 3a, 3b and 3c all work somehow and would make a decent reference
    glyph.

    Henning

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