Shawalphabet YahooGroup Archive Browser

Thanks again, Philip. We seem to have been online at the same time!
No sooner had I posted my thanks to you, than I saw your new post!


--- In shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com, Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 00:45, dshepx <david@...> wrote:
> >
> > copying the entire text
> > to whatever text-processing application you use and switching
> > the font to one of the Shaw-alphabet fonts available.
>
> Specificially, it would have to be one of the old-style fonts that map
> ASCII to Shavian. (Some popular ones back in my day were "Lionspaw"
> and "Androcles"; you might be able to find one or the other. I think
> one was more Arial-like, with constant-width lines, and one more like
> the font in the printed _Androcles_, with slight tapers in places.)
>
> > This may
> > not actually be the best way to do things, but it works.
>
> Or you could learn to read the "bumpycaps" version :)
>
> Cheers,
> Philip
> --
> Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
>

--- In shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com, "cossyrosario" wrote:

> --- In shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com, Philip Newton wrote:

> > Specificially, it would have to be one of the old-style fonts that
map
> > ASCII to Shavian. (Some popular ones back in my day were "Lionspaw"
> > and "Androcles"; you might be able to find one or the other. ...
Try here: http://demeyere.com/shavian/
Ross DeMeyre designed his handsome font Androcles (as well as
determining our first keyboard setting) it would appear to closely
resemble the typescript used in the dual-alphabet version of "Androcles
and the Lion", which I think beautiful. Unfortunately I've never been
able to find out who should have the credit for the type used in the
book.
Were Kingsley Read's letter designs so complete that they could be put
directly into print? Or were they the work of Hans Schmoller, at the the
time the publisher's (Penguin) master typographer? I suspect the latter
but can find no direct proof. Schmoller succeeded at Penguin one of the
greats of graphic design, Jan Tschichold, a very exacting man who gave
Penguin its modern look in the post-war years.
A quote found on the internet:

"By the early Sixties, Penguin ... launched its ... with the
elegant typography and layouts provided by Hans Schmoller and Romek
Marber." The dual-alphabet edition of Androcles was published in 1962.
dshep

Eight months down the line, what's new on this project? Is it A1 or A3?

--- In shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com, Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 15:29, Thomas tthurman@... wrote:
> > A project which has been eating most of my time is finally starting
to wrap up. I would like to put more time in on the Alphabet.
> >
> > A. There are three partly-finished projects that could use some
work. I'd like your opinions: which of these deserves to be done first?
> >
> > A1) shavian.org used to be able to transliterate documents for you,
and this broke. I have most but not all of it fixed; there's a few
days' work left to do.
> >
> > A2) Ubuntu Shavian edition. We have most of this translated; it
needs to be put together and distributed. I think it might take a week
or so.
> >
> > A3) Fury. This is a simple typesetter which allows you to produce
facing-page editions of conventional and Shavian text. It was
originally written to typeset "Alice" (which project has been adopted by
Michael Everson). I have been extending it so it's useful for
typesetting other works. Probably a month or so before anything useful
comes of it.
> >
> > So, which should I do first?
>
> In my opinion, A1 is the most worthwhile of those, and A3 more than
A2.
>
> Cheers,
> Philip
> --
> Philip Newton philip.newton@...
>

Less than a year later, the link is dead! What happened?

--- In shawalphabet@yahoogroups.com, "Thomas" <tthurman@...> wrote:
>
> Editing the Shavian wiki has always been rather an involved matter. I put an AJAX interface together last night which should help things along, and I thought you might like to test it:
>
> http://shavian.org/temp/
>
> The demo makes the following assumptions:
> - the word "twenty" isn't in the lexicon (of course it is really)
> - the word "guineas" isn't in the lexicon, but the word "guinea" is
> - "use" can be a noun or a verb.
>
> This really does submit your results to the server, but they don't update the wiki. In the real version they will.
>
> Note that you can type into the dialogue box using the Latin alphabet and it will appear as if you'd been using a Shavian keyboard. There is no need for a separate input method.
>
> If you have problems or suggestions, please let me know! Let me know what browser you're using, as well. I haven't yet tested this on Internet Explorer, so that would be particularly helpful, but all reports are useful.
>
> Thomas
>

Correction!
Dear Mr Read, sir, please pardon me!
Last month I wrote:
"Were Kingsley Read's letter designs so complete that they could be put
directly into print? Or were they the work of Hans Schmoller, at the the
time the publisher's (Penguin) master typographer? I suspect the latter
but can find no direct proof...."
It appears that Read did indeed prepare the necessary templates forthe
typescript used in the bilingual edition of "Androcles and the Lion".In
a brochure entitled "Sound-writing", he wrote:
"A month later, on 18 August [1960], I brought to London the
finishedShaw Alphabet. It was discussed with Mr [James] Pitman and
withMr J T Harrison (of Stephen Austin and Sons, Hertford, who
producedtype and printed Androcles) and it was adopted by the trustee. I
thenproceeded to make die-cutting drawings--30 times print size--in
threedistinct styles required for stage directions, the names of
speakers, and the dialogue."
That was the way things were done in the pre-digital age. A master
craftsman (in a profession made redundant) cut metal dies of each letter
in every style using as guides the large-scale drawings supplied by a
type designer.
Hans Schmoller it would appear did make a contribution however. Read
continued:
"The task of securing tolerable typographic spacing was not easy.An
edition of 40 000 paperback copies was issued commercially by Penguin
Books Ltd. Their refinements of typography in the orthodoxversion
inspired me to emulate it in the new alphabet. Our joint result was
chosen as one of the National Book League's 'best printed books of
1962'." It is a beautifully-printed book and I hope every member of
this group has a copy.dshep

On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 20:13, dshepx <david@...> wrote:
>
> I hope every member of this group has a copy.

I have copies of the paperback version I'm willing to sell, if
anyone's interested.

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

Have now finally added to the (photo) files a reproduction of one of Shaw's many postcard replies. This can be seen at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shawalphabet/photos/album/1666192986/pic/list

greetings all,
dshep

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 00:12, dshep <david@...> wrote:
> Have now finally added to the (photo) files a reproduction of one of Shaw's many postcard replies. This can be seen at
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shawalphabet/photos/album/1666192986/pic/list

Fascinating - thank you!

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

Last month, Philip wrote:
> Fascinating - thank you!
You're welcome--and here's another treat:
Examples of the four winning entries to the Shaw Alphabet
competition.Unfortunately difficult to read.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shawalphabet/photos/album/854448787/pic/li\
st?order=ordinal
dshep

Is it possible to get better scans of that source material? Where was it published previously?

On 7 Nov 2011, at 11:04, dshepx wrote:

>
> Last month, Philip wrote:
>
> > Fascinating - thank you!
>
> You're welcome--and here's another treat:
>
> Examples of the four winning entries to the Shaw Alphabet competition.
> Unfortunately difficult to read.
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shawalphabet/photos/album/854448787/pic/list?order=ordinal
>
> dshep
>
>

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/