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Re: First Sentence in Piktok

From:JS Bangs <jaspax@...>
Date:Friday, December 5, 2003, 22:09
Quoting Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>:

> --- JS Bangs <jaspax@...> wrote: > > Quoting Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>: > > > > > Added the start of the next section describing my > > new > > > pictographic conlang work in progress Piktok. > > <snip> > > > Surprisingly aesthetic. What are you using to draw > > the glyphs? If I didn't know > > better I'd say it was metafont or some other > > automatic drawing program. > > > > I am drawing the glyphs free-hand using Paintshop Pro > and my mouse. I draw them superimposed on a grid to > help me keep my hand steady, and I draw them very > large, usually 500 pixels tall or more. Then UI clean > up the edges a bit and shrink them down. > > As a computer programmer I am seriously thinking about > writing a program to do the drawing for me. I would > specify the pen shape and the pen path and let the > program draw the smoothed bitmap.
Don't reinvent the wheel. This is exactly what Metafont and Metapost do. Well, sort of--Metafont actually creates bitmap fonts and Metapost a variety of font formats, but either of these can be converted to images with freely available tools. If you're enough of a hacker to think you can *write* a program to do this, you can handle Metafont without a hiccup. I churned through the MF book in three days and immediately set about making my Yivrian font, which is now (mostly) finished, just waiting for me to do the conversions.
> > You don't ever discuss the phonetic forms, which I > > find very interesting. When > > you do anticipate having something for those up? > > > > I'm refining the design of the phonetic forms right > now. I'll probably have them up later this evening or > sometime tomorrow. They are based loosely on Shavian > letter forms, but use the same form for the voiced and > unvoiced consonant with a "swash" on the glyph to > indicate the voiced form.
Let us know when these are up. -- JS Bangs jaspax@glossopoesis.org "We're counting on our virtues Because it's too hard to count the dead." -Jason Webley

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Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>