From: Werner LEMBERG (wl@gnu.org)
Date: Wed Jan 27 2010 - 01:49:41 CST
> My sense is that the underlying motivation for the switch away from
> Fraktur were the forces of economic and technological integration
> and competition among industrialized countries, the early 20th
> century fore-runner of today's globalization.
Hmm.
> In other areas, in the arts, in architecture, the culture had moved
> on decisively to leave the 19th century behind (Jugendstil,
> Bauhaus). None of these were really compatible with the somewhat
> medieval feel of Fraktur. (My interpretation).
The letter design is always debatable, however, some features of
Fraktur make it uniquely suitable to German, much better than any
other scripts:
. The number of characters in German syllables is usually higher
than in most other European languages; using Fraktur you usually
can have approx. 30% more glyphs per line, which is invaluable for
justified typesetting small columns if you have to find good
hyphenation breaks.
. The difference between `s' and `ſ' helps much in the comprehension
German, especially in identifying the boarders of components in
compound words. For example, the famous `Wachstube' problem
(either Wachs-tube or Wach-stube) doesn't exist if you use `ſ':
Wachſtube -> Wach-Stube
Wachstube -> Wachs-Tube
Of course, this only works with Fraktur since there the use of `ſ'
is mandatory.
Werner
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