Re: Attempt to get a simpler setup of console fonts for systems installed by D-I
Dec 14, 2005 Ognyan Kulev wrote:
I checked upstream mails and now it doesn't look so
bad as I described it. The problem with k is that
such wrong fonts are used in books and magazines. For
example, upstream mentions PC World-Bulgaria and a
C++ quick reference book and says this makes tall k
"100% legitimate".
Let's cite more precisely: I mentioned PCW-BG and C++
reference simply because they were on my desk at the
moment (C++ ref. still is). My point was that examples
of high "k" are pretty easy to find, not that PCW/C++
ref. make the character legitimate. I never said or
implied the latter.
14 Dec 2005 Anton Zinoviev <anton@lml.bas.bg> wrote:
This shape of the Cyrillic "k" is a relatively
recent invention of the Bulgarian font makers.
The high "k" and zhe exist from at least 20-25 years.
Relatively new compared to bulgarian book printing?
Maybe. To cyrillic computer fonts? Hardly.
As far as I know it is never used outside of
Bulgaria. Even in Bulgaria almost all books and
newspapers use the traditional Cyrillic "k".
The "modern" (so to say) "k" is used mostly in the
magazines, IT newspapers and IT books, various
broshures, adverticements, etc.
At least 11 lowercase cyrillic letters have two
varianths, let's call them 1 and 2 and make a list:
1 2
a courier a o/alpha-like a
be small BE high be
ve small VE high/beta-like ve
ghe small GHE mirrored-s like
de small DE latin g
ze small ZE ze w/ y-descender
zhe small ZHE high zhe
i small I latin u
ka small K high/latin k
te small T latin m
ef small EF high ef
One would think that these are two clear, distinct
styles. Not so. The most common book printing style is
1-be2-ef2. In fact I have only seen be2 and ef2 in
computer fonts and am not sure they are legitimate,
whatever is that supposed to mean. The most common
handwriting style is 2-zhe1-ka1. The full varianth 2 is
used mostly for decorative purposes, while 2-a1-zhe1 in
my impression denotes [pseudo-]archaic texts. And style
1-be2-ve2-ef2-te2 is not uncommon for italic fonts...
Terminus is a1-be2-ve2-ghe1|2-de2-ze1-zhe1-i2-ka2-te1-
ef2 (ghe2 is used for plain ghe, ghe1 for ghe with
accents). An old version used a1, but it turned out to
be too hard to distinguish from o on computer
terminals.
The conclusion is: the new "k" looks ugly to most
Cyrillic-users outside of Bulgaria and the
traditional "k" is perfectly normal for the Cyrillic
users in Bulgaria.
The ka1 vs. ka2 question can be solved by a vote, but
the next request will probably be to sync ghe. So I'll
revive the practive of releasing patches, including but not limited to ka, and everyone will be able to design
his/her favorite or "the right thing" character mix.
On a second thought, why not simply change cyrillic k
and be done with it? That'll make the font exactly
1.5 - perfectly balanced, so to say. Joking.
Ideally, the preffered cyrillic style for computer
fonts should be defined by someone like our Bulgarian
Sciences Academy. But considering their position on the
phonetic keyboard, we'd better not ask them at all.
--
E-gards: Jimmy
Reply to: