The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#1

Post by danh » Tue, May 18, 2010, 7:40 PM UTC

The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World
smashingmagazine.com

Re: The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#2

Post by callahad » Tue, May 18, 2010, 8:30 PM UTC

Holy cow, has Smashing always published these sorts of articles, or is this an outlier? Quite the departure from their often-linked "40 Wordpress Themes!" posts.

Re: The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#3

Post by chime » Tue, May 18, 2010, 8:35 PM UTC

This was a fascinating and very informative read. I spent many a nights toiling over the intricacies of the Devanagari script when I was coding http://chime.tv/products/hind2000/ss.shtml as a kid. My biggest take-away was that combining different characters is pretty much required though difficult to implement. If you spell "MItI" and then edited it to "MIttI", I would have to replace the 't' with a special double 'tt' character. Simply adding another 't' character would not suffice.

Re: The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#4

Post by elblanco » Tue, May 18, 2010, 8:36 PM UTC

http://www.omniglot.com

brings me hours of enjoyment.

Re: The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#5

Post by percept » Tue, May 18, 2010, 8:44 PM UTC

callahad wrote: post #2

Holy cow, has Smashing always published these sorts of articles, or is this an outlier? Quite the departure from their often-linked "40 Wordpress Themes!" posts.

I guess there's a mix but I like their compilations. IMO regular viewing of large galleries of designs can only lead to improvement (even if it's "what not to do"), and they've done the assembly work for me.

Re: The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#6

Post by ThomPete » Tue, May 18, 2010, 11:12 PM UTC

Their best article so far IMHO. Let's get more of this. Articles where you actually learn something.

Re: The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#7

Post by purp » Tue, May 18, 2010, 11:55 PM UTC

elblanco wrote: post #4

http://www.omniglot.com brings me hours of enjoyment.

Great, now I won't sleep tonight as I learn the difference between syllabic alphabets and syllabaries. I hate you in the kindest way possible. ;]

Re: The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#8

Post by zeynel1 » Wed, May 19, 2010, 12:40 AM UTC

Amazing! Thank you.

Re: The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#9

Post by elblanco » Wed, May 19, 2010, 1:49 AM UTC

purp wrote: post #7

elblanco wrote: post #4

http://www.omniglot.com brings me hours of enjoyment.

Great, now I won't sleep tonight as I learn the difference between syllabic alphabets and syllabaries. I hate you in the kindest way possible. ;]

It's pretty much one of the best little corners of the Internet ever.

You're welcome. :D

Re: The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World

#10

Post by teejae » Wed, May 19, 2010, 3:03 AM UTC

purp wrote: post #7

elblanco wrote: post #4

http://www.omniglot.com brings me hours of enjoyment.

Great, now I won't sleep tonight as I learn the difference between syllabic alphabets and syllabaries. I hate you in the kindest way possible. ;]

If you're interested in human languages, another great place on the internet is:

http://www.ethnologue.com/

I've spent countless hours on both Omniglot and Ethnologue.