Cap Ligature

Cap Ligature

Legibility and fonts are easy to read

<b> problem </ b>

As a programmer, I spend a lot of time reading technical documentation. Most of these comes from the Internet, so I read my computer screen. I used to adjust the size of the text and read more comfortable time. Unfortunately, the language most comfortable size is different for different groups of letters ("ftlji" vs. "vkxsz"), so now and then I come across phrases like:
"Djinn illiterate bows illegally lifts, filters and fills flitters Fiji!
Not only does it slow down my pace of reading, but also allows uncomfortable to read. I initially attributed this problem the fact that the majority of web pages use sans serif fonts, considered more readable on computer screens. So every time I fall on a large text, I copy it into Notepad, then read using one of my favorite fonts serifed.

But as soon as I discovered that the texts in Cyrillic are easier to read than texts in Latin, regardless of font settings. This becomes particularly evident when I read mixed text on the same page. Most sensitive (lowercase letters) in Cyrillic follow the shape of capitals, they vary in width and height of less in Latin, and shape of each glyph is more distinct. All text is mainly composed of tiny, Cyrillic therefore seems to be more readable.

History <b> </ b>

The original texts were written entirely in capital letters, spaced between well-defined limits upper and lower. When written quickly with a pen, the letters tend to turn into round shapes and simple. It is these forms of lowercase letters developed. Thus, the Latin alphabet has been optimized for writing at the expense of readability. But this is not the only one who has suffered at the hands of writers. Almost all modern writing systems are supposed to have descended directly or indirectly from a single source - the Phoenician. This script is the ancestor of almost all alphabets in use today, including Arabic, other Greek, Latin and many. The Hebrew alphabet the closest yet to his predecessor, only the shape of the letters has been changed, while traditional Mongolian script has almost no resemblance. Poenician success was due in part to its phonetic nature; Phoenician script was the first widely used in which a sound was represented by a symbol. This simple opposition of the other scripts in use at the time, such as cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics, which employed many complex and difficult characters to learn. This configuration one-to-one has also to be Phoenician used in several languages. Its evolution has taken different directions, and many different alphabets have emerged, all influenced by writers and optimized for writing.

But not only Phoenician alphabet was the first proper (or rather abjad because it contained only consonants) but the only optimized for readability! He used a system acrophony naming letters. Their names are essentially the values of the word symbol of origin for each letter. For example, the letter Aleph is derived from the Semitic word for "ox", and the shape of the letter from a hieroglyph representing an ox head with horns and ears. Or Ayin (representing the sound that has no equivalent in European languages) - derived the word "ayn" ("eye"), and it looked like an eye.

However, Phoenician did not fit into the Indo-European very well. Firstly, because of the difference in phonetics. Second, because Poenician alphabet missing vowels. In Semitic languages it has not that important, but in European languages vowels play an important role, and without them, these two languages would be unintelligible (compare "fill" "Full", "fall").

The Greek alphabet originally from the 9th century BC as a radical modification of the Phoenician. He was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, ie, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel and each consonant. Vowels were made from the Semitic consonants that were superfluous in Greek. For example, Aleph has been transformed into Alpha, and "A" Latin and Cyrillic? ". From now, the consonants would always be accompanied by vowel signs to create a pronounceable unit.

But still, people perceive letters as hieroglyphs ("sacred signs" - Greek). Whenever people need an additional letter, they ask, "Where can we borrow one?" They could not even think about designing a new glyph (sacrilege!), so they preferred to maim an existing business instead. Later this attitude contributed significantly to the development of diacritics.

The next revolution in writing systems has occurred more than a thousand years later, when the first alphabet was created especially appropriate from scratch for a particular language - not inherited or borrowed from somewhere. For example, in the 9th century AD and St.Cyril St.Methodius created a brand new Glagolitic alphabet for the Slavic languages. There was one correspondence between phonemes and graphemes, so perfectly Glagolitic alphabet with Slavic languages. He is a descendant Cyrillic adapted to the evolution of spoken language and developed regional variations to suit characteristics of national languages. Today, dozens of languages in Europe and Asia are written in Cyrillic.

And now, more than one millennium later, is not it time for another revolution?

The task <b> </ b>

Do not be afraid to this! I do not suggest the development of a new alphabet instead of Latin. Indeed, the Latin alphabet does not fit very European languages so, unlike most other local alphabets. Some European languages use diacritics broadly, they look like rather pathetic attempts to adapt the Latin alphabet. Nations that do not use diacritics, are forced to use digraphs and trigraphs - just a better option (eg "tsch" in German). But it is beyond the scope of this article, and elsewhere, it is not realistic.

And yet, the new revolution is behind half a millennium. Since Gutenberg invented printing, people depended more fonts optimized for writing, and could develop legible. Unfortunately, readers did not arise against the tyranny of the writers in Western Europe. Only the Russians took advantage of favorable circumstances and undertook the modernization of their alphabet. Diacritics have been abolished and the letter-improved forms. Since uppercase and lowercase Cyrillic letter-forms and are not as differentiated as in Latin typography. In fact, the Cyrillic letters in lowercase are essentially small capitals (with some exceptions). Other countries that also uses the Cyrillic followed suit. The police have not changed much since, but even 300 years later, Cyrillic is still more readable than Latin.

And now when changing font on a computer screen has a mouse in a single click, I wonder why so many forms of abbreviated writing systems have been developed, but not a single-friendly? These different fonts that we have now are essentially attempts to improve aesthetic perception of the same old, with only minor improvements in readability. Let us clearly: aesthetic perception is very important but when I read a big piece of technical documentation, I prefer readability.

So I challenge the scientists and designers to develop a new type of Latin font, and only specially optimized for fast reading and comfortable. I want to emphasize that this should be the same old alphabet Latin - graphics should be improved, but the letters should be easily recognizable. Transition should be absolutely transparent. I just want to change Font from time to time on my computer screen, and it should take no effort at all.

Analysis <b> </ b>

<i> times when I was in North Africa, a girl of about seven came up to me, trying to sell something. I would I offered a game of backgammon instead - I would pay for each win. Apparently she was very intelligent - she was able to converse in a couple foreign languages, and she had beaten me four times! But I was surprised to find that she can not read. She explained her parents are poor and can not afford a school. I said: "But surely you can learn as you learn foreign languages without a teacher! "She laughs as if she called my bluff, and said:" Everyone knows that you should study in school to learn to read and write. "
So I decided to learn the Arabic alphabet myself. When I visited Israel, I taught myself Hebrew alphabet in a few days, and I expected that Arabic will not take much more, because they are closely linked. To my surprise, it took me three weeks! </ I>

In case of the Arabic script, its complexity has a clear impact the literacy rate, and that was the main reason why the Turks adopted the new Arabic alphabet rather than eight decades ago. But there are better examples. Ironically, the Russians finally had problems with their archaic alphabet, such as improving their script when the time had come with the printing press. And now, at the dawn of the new computer age is the right time for us to the same, or better yet, as now, we can use scientific methods of analysis. I think this is inevitable in the long term, so the sooner done the better. Hoping that a better understanding of the issues will help educate the public, I'll briefly describe the basic improvements I expect to see.

First, dimensions (width and height) of individual glyphs do should not vary much.
Currently, the process of identifying glyph involves an additional step to assess its position and dimensions. Letters in words like "kill" or "by" look disproportionate, their upper and lower limits are unclear. Therefore, they are harder to read.

Secondly, the integrity of the glyphs must be preserved. Identification of glyphs composed two distinct elements, such as "i" and "j", requires an additional step - the assembly of elements into a single symbol. But why should I do someone else's job? Each glyph must be in one piece!

Third, the sequence two glyphs should not look like a third glyph, there should be a clear difference that adjacent letters tend to merge (eg "bum" or "burn"). It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between "m" and "rn", "d" and "cl", etc. People with vision problems are most severely affected by this vulnerability.

Next is closely linked to the preceding ligatures should be used only in policies decorative. Identification involves an additional step - to divide the ligature glyphs distinct. And the letters tend to merge into words like "tiff" "Thief", "fifth".

Last but not least, the glyphs should not look too similar.
Currently, there are many glyphs that differ only by a small element. Juxtaposition of certain glyphs will get boring result - a glyph can be completely lost in another glyph shape ('c' for example and 'o', 'c' and 'e', 'i' and 'j', 'l' and 'k', "n" and 'h', 'v' and 'y', 'i' and 'l'). For this reason, identification requires more effort than necessary. Glyphs should really different from each other, and their essential elements should not be too small. I think 1x1 pixel elements (as in i, j) will finally abolished, and even the punctuation is going to change their shape in the future (compare "" and';').

<i> A man ordered a number plate of his car with something like "IO10IOI. He hopes that police will not be able to spell correctly and thus he could avoid the fines. But the number he has already received was misspelled: "1010101" </ i>.

I hope that these improvements have a significant impact on readability. But even if this is only a slight increase, it would still be worth it. I am sure, people with poor eyesight will appreciate it. In addition, the most precious commodity of our civilization is knowledge, and people who produce it must read a lot. Some people go from reading hundreds of hours each year - students and professors, scientists and researchers, programmers and lawyers, to name a few. Time saved in reading, they devote to production - regardless of their main product. Even a small increase in the average reading speed will result in millions of dollars in annual sales worldwide. I would not be surprised if a Nobel Prize Economics will be awarded for the best solution to this task. My motivation, however, is to make reading more comfortable for me.

Solution <b> </ B>

But what if nobody is rushing to help me? I can not wait another 300 years, so I decided to offer a kind of interim solution.

I will boldly follow the steps St.Cyril and St. Methodius, and will not hesitate to use any <b> </ B> means easy reading. First suggestion: Capitals should be abolished. Anyone surprised? They look like a medieval relic for me. Most writing systems do not employ them at all. Because our system is based on a phonetic principle, it would be honest to use signs instead decisive - in conjunction with personal names, place names, abbreviations, etc. Some determinants are already in use (eg quotes), then one more would not make a difference to our system. I prefer to see a small single glyph preceding a target word.

Tiny should be the same height and about the same width, and each must acquire some unique characteristic that clearly separate. Should we be too shy to abolish capital, we could achieve a kind of "Russian solution", ie using the same forms for both, because it is easier to design 26 graphemes good as 52. For example, a good solution for DO-0-Q problematic group is the letter-forms used for new German car number plates - apparently they had been specially developed to be recognizable far.

Here I must emphasize, that solution will not like writing in capital letters, which is quite unpleasant to read, because the size of the text and properties (vertical and horizontal spacing, etc.) is optimized to lowercase. The easy to read font, however, come with good properties. It will be even easier to optimize, the letters will not be so different in size (eg, 'W' vs. 'I').

Imagine how much worse would be to play without those horizontal rows, if the letters jumped up and down when they wanted! But if the opposite occurred: appropriate glyph would also have the same width? In this case vertical columns mark the width of the glyphs in the same manner as the horizontal lines mark their height. A further step of recognizing glyph - assess its width - could be ignored. It may seem not very important because we are used the current trend, but when several improvements accumulate, it will have a significant impact on the overall reading speed. BTW, most publishers software used by developers already use monospace fonts for easier reading of source code.

I think it would be preferable punctuation that was obviously different letters. For example, they may occupy the same width, but smaller in height. And in any case, each element independently with 1x1 pixel size must be changed (eg they may resemble a small cross) because they are too small and requires too much effort identification (eg ':' and';').

Conclusion <b> </ b>

<i> FECI potui quod, FACI potentes meliora! </ I>
No doubt an intelligent man could have done much better, but where is it? Meanwhile, the proposed solution has some advantages: all the problems mentioned above our current script are eliminated. The only thing really needs to solve this problem is the determination and I hope this article will inspire someone to develop the first police never easy to read.

About the Author

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