Re: Serif vs. sans serif

Don Blaheta:

>Legend has it that studies have been done showing that serif fonts are
>easier to read.  I would guess this has something to do with providing a
>more distinctive shape for the eye to grok.
Yeah, I find serif fonts more pleasing.  Except when printing in very small
size, since a lot of printers can't handle super-high resolution (i.e.
beyond 600 dpi).  At my dad's old office in Nacogdoches, we were stuck with
a *dinosaur* of a printer, a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 3 or something like
that, 300 dpi.  Icky.

>But as I think about it, very few real-world scripts (that I know of,
>always a big disclaimer) have such a distinction.  The Latin alphabet
>does, of course, and Cyrillic and Greek; Hebrew I've not seen true
>serifs on, but in the rabbinic variety it has well-defined widening and
>narrowing of certain bits of each character, which probably serves the
>same purpose.  However, I've never seen serifed versions of, for
>instance, Chinese or Japanese.  I can't even imagine how one would add
>serifs to Arabic.
Hebrew doesn't really need serifs, unless it's out to directly imitate a
Western-like face (similar in fashion to a lot of Latin-alphabet fonts
designed to resemble Devanagari, or something like that).  The design, I've
heard, is intended to represent little flames, referring to the 'fire' of
the Holy Spirit, Who inspired the recording of Scripture.  But that claim
came from a certain Christian (and very Gentile) pastor.

Come to think of it, you do have in traditional Jewish square script, those
little 'serifs' that turn up in the upper left corner of the symbol.  What
are they called in Hebrew anyways?

Incidentally, I experimented with a serifed version of Japanese kana
syllables; don't know where I went with that one.  It resembled Cherokee a
lot!  And you do have some serifing in certain script styles in Arabic, like
Kufi, which is very geometric and angular, a far cry from the flowing
cursive writing you see in handwriting (Naskh, etc.).  But even in Naskh you
have something of a one-direction serif in letters like taah and dhaah (both
emphatics).  It's just a short bending of the vertical stroke towards the
southwest.

Again, I could experiment with Arabic and Syriac with a Western-like serif
design.  I expect something really freaky, perfect for the upcoming
Hallowe'en festivities...

>Does anyone have serif/sans-serif (or similar) distinctions within their
>own conscripts?
Well, Tech tends to prefer the traditional sans-serif style of Ge'ez, but
some companies, including an Ethiopian software company in Houston (forget
the name), has designed several fonts (non-shareware, you have to order
them), one of which actually resembles black letter writing!  (I've seen
this style a lot in Ethiopian newspapers and magazines for 'headline'
purposes.)

But my personal style of writing Tech (or Amharic or Tigrigna, if I ever
decide to learn those languages) is heavily serifed, though all lines are
the same width.  If I ever can get this scanner fixed, I'll scan a sample; I
think it looks neat.

I am still working on a totally alphabetic writing system for Tech, based
mostly on Greek-Coptic and using both magiscules as well as miniscules (for
the layman: upper and lower case).  But this is, according to the focus era
of my future writings (21st-22nd century), still in the experimental stage.
It's the work of none other than the crown princess, daughter of King
John-Baptist I.  (And relating to conculture -- is that list still around?
-- I'll post something on Techian government.  It's, in a way, a mixture of
a traditional tribal oligarchy with an elected monarch, but it also contains
a constitutional republican democracy with a bicameral parliament and free
elections.  A cross between a republic (_jamhuriyah_) and a federated royal
state, if such a thing is possible.)

One last thing -- I just happen to have a serifed Devanagari font, called
Shivaji02 or something like that.  Forgot where I got it, but Dr. Berlin has
just about everything as long as it's free-/shareware.  (My last post has
the URL.)

Danny

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