Re: notelangs

> Indic scripts also break some of the rules I tend to follow
> when creating
> scripts: don't cross more than two lines at the same place,
> mix curved and straight shapes with caution, don't leave big
> loops hanging off one side of a character, distribute
> features across the entire space so that characters don't
> look side-heavy; yet such scripts are beautiful nonetheless.
> They have given me some new ideas for inventing scripts; you
> might find them useful as well.
This, I think, is dependent on a different design aesthetic: Devanagari
(to pick an example) doesn't care what methods it uses to fill space,
but it has some more-or-less strict restrictions on the rhythm it
creates when doing so:
The "interesting part" of a character fills a continuous two-thirds
portion of the space between headline and tailline, or has an
interruption at one of the thirds.
The thin diagonal is allowed to crowd closer to other lines than the
mid-weight orthogonals or the thick diagonal.
A word -should- have about as many full characters as it has syllables;
non-syllabic characters are reduced if possible.
There should be just enough opportunities to break the headline that
we're aware that it's possible, but it shouldn't break so often as to
fall apart.

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Shreyas Sampat