Re: Medievalist ligature character in the PUA

From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Wed Jan 27 2010 - 07:06:26 CST

  • Next message: Asmus Freytag: "Re: Medievalist ligature character in the PUA"

    On 1/26/2010 11:49 PM, Werner LEMBERG wrote:
    > The letter design is always debatable, however, some features of
    > Fraktur make it uniquely suitable to German, much better than any
    > other scripts:
    >
    When I was a kid I would extensively read older books set in Fraktur. I
    always found the capitals a disaster, especially the rounded ones. I'm
    convinced that these supposed synergies with the German language are
    marginal, as far as ease of reading is concerned. What is perhaps not
    quite as marginal, or was not marginal, is that books and newspapers
    typeset in Fraktur required less paper. That is no longer a strong
    constraint, and probably ceased to be so at some point in the the course
    of the 20th century (excepting various periods of war-time shortages).

    That leaves enthusiasm for the style for its own sake (and for the sake
    of preserving a bit of history).

    The text from which you quote is definitely written by an enthusiast and
    as such needs to be taken with the usual dose of sodium chloride.

    Cheers,

    A./



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