From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Thu May 10 2007 - 00:02:40 CDT
I don't like the concept of borrowing the gamma, because when it is ligated, it becomes too much like an I. Such thing does not exists between E and F despite the lowercase are very different.
The suggestion doss not pass the scanner test for a modern font, and still has problems with small size printing in newspaper articles or free ads.
And semantically, creating a ligature by using a capital gamma looks too strange...
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] De la
> part de Adam Twardoch
> Envoyé : jeudi 10 mai 2007 01:43
> À : Unicode Discussion
> Cc : Michael Everson; John Hudson
> Objet : Re: The glyph of the CAPITAL SHARP S
>
> In most of the middle ages and the period up until the 19th century, the
> long s ("ſ") and "f" were closely related, "f" being simply a "ſ" with a
> stroke going through. The same, very primitive graphic relation exists
> between the prototypic shapes of the Greek letters gamma (Γ) and digamma
> (Ϝ). Since the minuscule "f" always has been a "ſ" with a middle stroke,
> then the capital "F" might also be considered an uppercase "ſ" with a
> stroke going through. Of course an uppercase long s never existed, but
> this relation may be helpful when constructing the uppercase ß.
>
> Because I think that *if* the Latin alphabet ever used or needed another
> capital S, the preferred shape could be that of a gamma (Γ). This is a
> simple, effective shape that maintains a stylistic relation to the
> lowercase long s that is typical of other uppercase-to-lowercase
> relations.
>
> If we look at the relations between Aa Ee Ff Mm Pp, we will notice that
> sharp, edgy connections in the uppercase are related to more smooth,
> round connections in the lowercase. If "F" developed into "f" in a
> cursive hand, then it is very easy to imagine that a cursive rendition
> of the "Γ" shape might, indeed, look very much like "ſ".
>
> This is an important observation when thinking about the shape of an
> uppercase "ß": I assert that the shape of uppercase "ß" must be "edgier"
> than the lowercase. In short, I think that the left part of uppercase ß
> should be "Γ".
>
> What about the right part? Here, I would call to exploit the double
> origin of "ß", which developed paralelly as a ligature of "ſs" as well
> as of "ſz" (where the "z" historically used the "ʒ" shape, so "ſʒ").
>
> These days, the lowercase "ß" is typically derived from the ligated form
> of "ſs". For visual dissimilation purposes -- to strongly set apart the
> lowercase and the (new) uppercase "ß" I would derive the uppercase "ß"
> from a ligation of the hypothetical uppercase "ſ" (i.e. "Γ") and the
> shape of "the other" origin of "ß", i.e. of the historical "Z" shape.
>
> In short, I believe that the best graphical rendition of an uppercase
> "ß" will be a well-designed ligature that incorporates these shapes: "ΓƷ"
>
> I have made a small simulation using Garamond Premier (please excuse my
> poor drawing abilities):
>
> http://www.twardoch.com/tmp/germandbls_garamond.png
>
> On a related matter, at the exhibition "Neue Baukunst. Berlin um 1800",
> which is on display at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin until May 28,
> I have discovered a fantastic calligraphic lowercase "ß" shape, in which
> the "long s" part connects to the BOTTOM and not to the top of the
> following "short s". Please take a look:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamt/490547406/
>
> This got my imagination going.
>
> I have collected and summarized the points that I made so far on this
> list, and opened a new topic at Typophile:
> http://typophile.com/node/33647
>
> Typophile may be more appropriate to discuss questions of glyph design.
>
> Regards,
> Adam
>
> --
>
> Adam Twardoch
> | Language Typography Unicode Fonts OpenType
> | twardoch.com | silesian.com | fontlab.net
>
>
>
>
>
>
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