From: John Hudson (john@tiro.ca)
Date: Thu May 10 2007 - 01:15:37 CDT
Philippe Verdy wrote:
> No it's a proven fact; if not convinced, try to guess which Latin text is
> written by hiding the lower part or the upper part of the line.
> The lower part is used as a visual hint for maintaining the baseline
> alignment, the middle part contains no distinct form, but only acts on
> blackness (is it "filled" by an extra stroke or not), and the top part
> carries almost all the information and must contain most distinctions
You are presuming a functional role for these characteristics that is not supported by
studies of how we read. The fact that Latin letters have this particular arrangement of
features does not mean that the features assume special functional roles ('maintaining
baseline alignment'). Evidence suggests that we read by recognising the overall role
architecture of features in letters and their relationships to each other to build word
recognition.
The fact that it is easier to decipher text when the bottom half is covered than when the
top half is covered is an accident of the evolution of Latin letterforms, not a clue to
how we read normal text. The arrangement of features could just as easily produce the
opposite and equally accidental result.
John Hudson
-- Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com Gulf Islands, BC tiro@tiro.com We say our understanding measures how things are, and likewise our perception, since that is how we find our way around, but in fact these do not measure. They are measured. -- Aristotle, Metaphysics
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