Designing glyphs

Glyphs can be drawn freehand or on some kind of grid or set of guidelines. There is no standard inasmuch as some types of grids will work better for certain types of glyphs, and there is no intention that all the glyphs conform to some single standard.

Here area few examples of glyph design on a fixed grid:


figure 3. A grid with 3:4 aspect ratio.


figure 4. A grid with 6:8 aspect ratio
for greater detail in the glyphs.


figure 4. A grid with 4:5 aspect ratio.


figure 5. Some glyphs built on the 4:5 grid.
Dash between the glyphs shows the
penpoint shape used to draw the glyph.

Glyphs might also be assembled out of fixed components as in these examples:


figure 6. Eight components are assembled
in a 1 X 2 or 2 X 2 grid to create a glyph.


figure 7. Another assortment of glyph parts that can be assembled into an
astronomical number of unique glyphs.

And finally, glyphs can be designed in a dot matrix like those used in antique computer printers, such as this example gleaned from somewhere on the Internet.

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figure 8. Some examples of dot matrix based glyphs.

Glyph Design Guidlines

These standards are not meant as hard and fast laws that must be followed, but are simply guidelines for creating glyphs that will work harmoniously with existing glyphs.

The height of the glyph is the critical dimension, and the width may vary as needed by the design. The aspect ratio of a glyph should probably not be less than 1:3 and not more than 1:1. In other words, the width of a glyph should be at least 1/3 of its height, and a glyph should never be wider than its height. Here are a few sample aspect ratios.


Figue 2.1. Some popular
aspect ratios for glyphs.

When glyphs are displayed together in text they should all be the same height. The glyphs may be designed on any size bitmap that the user desires, but the completed glyph should then be scaled down to the desired standard height. Suggested standards are 48 and 32 pixels high for headers and titles and 24 to 18 pixels high for normal text. 24 pixels in height seems to be the best compromise between compact size and readability.

Dictionaries and "Alphabetic Order"

Once we've collected more that a dozen glyphs or so we will be sorely in need of a dictionary that we can use to look up unfamiliar glyphs. But before we can build a dictionary we need to know how we are going to arrange the glyphs into some meaningful sequence so that we will be able to locate a glyph we've never seen before. But since a glyph is not spelled there is no such thing as alphabetical order.

Suppose that we have just come across these two glyphs in something we are reading: How do we look them up in the dictionary?

LOTEP Numbers and How To Find Them

The solution is to count how many time certain features appear in the glyph and to jot down those numbers in a certain order. Take a look at the first of those two glyphs.


Figure 4. Terminations and
Even crossings.

Notice that this particular glyph has 6 endpoints where a line terminates, circled in red. Notice also that this glyph has two places where an even number of lines come into a "crossroads", circled in blue. These two numbers can be used to help identify this glyph. Now let's look at the second glyph.


Figure 5. Terminations, Even crossings,
Odd crossings and Loops.

This glyph is a bit more interesting. Not only does it have endpoints and even-numbered crossroads like the glyph in figure 4, it also has enclosed spaces (loops), marked in yellow, and crossroads marked in green where an odd number of lines meet. Notice how the green crossing have only three lines coming into the intersection while the blue ones have four. That gives us some more numbers to play with. But what do we do with those numbers?

LOTEP: Loops, Odds, Terminals, Evens, Pieces

The answer is that we write those numbers down in a particular order, and use that number as an index into the dictionary. The order is chosen so that the initial letters spell out the word "LOTEP", which is the name we will give to the code number for each glyph.

Looking back at the glyph in figure 4 we see that it has zero loops or enclosed spaces, so the first digit of the index number will be zero. The glyph of figure 4 also has no odd intersections so the second digit will also be zero. There are 6 terminal endpoints and 2 even intersections, so these two will be the next two digits. Finally, the glyph is made of one connected piece. Therefore the LOTEP number for the glyph in figure 4 will be 00621.

= 00621

The second glyph has 2 enclosed spaces or loops, so its first digit will be 2. It also has 2 odd intersections, 6 terminal endpoints, 3 even intersections and only 1 piece. Stringing these digits together we end up with:

= 22631

Now let's take a look at two other glyphs.

=21321 = 21321

Notice that both of these glyphs have identical lotep numbers. What this means is that lotep index numbers will not uniquely identify every single possible glyph. Instead, the index number will put us on the right page of the dictionary, but we will still have to scan down the page checking perhaps a dozen glyphs to find the one we are looking for. But even so, having to scan through a dozen glyphs is far better than having to scan through a dictionary of 6,000 glyphs that's not arranged in any particular order. So even though the lotep system is not perfect, it will save us a great deal of time when we need to look up glyphs we've never seen before.


Glyph Maker Program

Glyphs can be designed using a master grid. Within that grid, the Glyph Shape Code, or GSC is used to specify the shape of the glyph. The code can be used to draw the glyph at any size, and in a variety of different styles. The codes are based on the nodes of the grid which are each tagged with a letter of the alphabet, as in Figure 1.


Figure 1. The GSC Master Grid.

A glyph code consists of one or more sequences of letters indicating where lines are to be drawn, along with a few special characters that modify the manner in which the line is drawn. The code sequences are drawn by a software interpretor that reads each command character and draws the appropriate line. The software interpretor can exist as part of a glyph design program to create glyphs which will eventually end up in a font finle, or it can be embedded in usch other software tools as word processors and document readers in which case it takes the place of the traditional font. More details will be found in the section on glyph identity codes.

The lines defined by the glyph code are meant to be the paths followed by a pen or brush as it draws the glyphs. Unlike a font definition which defines the complete outline of the letter's shape, the glyph code defines a glyph which can be drawn only with a brush or pen, stroked in the same way as in normal writing. In other words, fancy shapes and serifs such as might be found in a font won't be found here. Instead, such decorations, if desired, will be created on the fly by the glyph interpretor software as it draws the glyph.

The Glyph Designer Program

You can download the program here. To see how the program is used let's work through a couple of examples.

Installing the Program

Unzip the program into any directory you like. Also uzip the glyphMaster.txt file that contains some sample glyphs you can load into the program.

Running the Program

Double click on the program icon. Make sure the glyphMaster.txt is in the same directory as the progam exe file.

Saving and Loading Paths

You can start by clicking the "Load" button in the Shape Code box. This will load the sample glyphs included in the zip file. To look at the different glyphs in this sample file, click on the arrow buttons just above the load button. The Shape Code Number widown will show you which glyph number you are looknig at. There is no limit to the number of glyphs you may add to the file, as long as you don't run our of memory.

After you've added some glyphs of your own to the list you can save the glyph master file by clicking the Save button in the Shape Code box. This will save all the glyphs that are defined in the program.

Picking a Pen or Brush and Tracing the Path

Under the Penpoint window you will find two arrow buttons to select pen points with. Once you have selected the pen you wish to use you may click the Draw button in the Bitmap box. The Glyph Maker will draw a picture of that glyph using the selected pen.

Saving a Bitmap of the Glyph

At the present time the Save bitmap button is not yet installed. (This is the very next thing on my things to do list.) Instead, use the Copy button in the Bitmap box to put the image on the clipboard so you can paste it into your favorite paint program.

Drawing Lines and Curves

Straight lines are drawn by entering two letters in the edit box below the glyph drawing window. The Glyph Maker will then draw a straight line connecting those two points. When you enter a thrid letter the line will be continued to the third point.

To start a new line not connected to the lines that came before, enter a colon ':' between the two letters. This will disconnect them from one another.

To draw a curve between two points type any digit from '0' through '9' between the two letters. There are ten different kinds of curves, and rather than try to explain them all, it would be easier for you just to experiment with them, and look at some of the sample glyphs in the glyph master file provided. You can experiment, for example, by seeing what the difference is between curve p7t and p8t. Type in p7t, then move the curser to the right of the 7 and hit backspace and 8 to replace the 7 with an 8 and see how it changes the curve.

The biggest differences among the curves are whether they enter the letter points straight on or at a diagonal, and whether they curve in a clockwise or counter-clockwise manner. A little experimentation is all you need to see how they work.

A Different Glyph Maker Program

This version of the glyph maker program does not specify the endpoints of the line. Instead, each line is drawn from wherever the previous liine left off. For example, to draw a long vertical line you would start the pen at the top and command the program to draw "down, down, down, ..." as many times as you wanted the vertical line to be long. In this program, the letter "e" (upper case OR lower case) commands the pen to move downward from its present location.

The complete list of pen movement commands is given below. The best way to understand them is to experiment with a series of commands in the edit window and observe how it changes the series of pen strokes.

The pen motion commands above are interpreted as follows:

  1. x(2)y(1) moves the pen point to location 2 on the horizontal scale and location 1 on the vertical scale.
  2. Next, ^2 tells the pen to move in a quarter circle, right and down. The ^ tells the pen to "super size" the circle and draw it with a 2-grid radius insteads of a 1-grid radius.
  3. Next, e moves the pen down one grid space.
  4. y(4) moves to location 4 on the vertical scale without drawing, and ...
  5. eeee moves the pen down four grid spaces completing the ascender to the right of the circular portion of the letter.
  6. x(0)y(6) moves the pen to the left edge where the number "6" appears on the vertical scale.
  7. Then ^1c2e^3^4 draws a super size curve clockwise up and to the right (^1), ...
  8. followed by a horizontal move (c)...
  9. followed by a small circle clockwise down and to the right (2).
  10. Then the pen is drawn doward one cell (e) and ...
  11. two super sized curves are drawn clockwise to meet the starting point. (^3^4).

This version uses a larger grid and a different set of drawing codes. Here's the above letter as drawn with the pen point shown:

The drawing codes are:

Download this version plus a sample alphabet here.