You mean like on mosques? :-> Compare how long Turkish used Arabic versus how long it's been using Latin... And you can't read the Qur'aan without it (since it's Arabic by definition - translations are not kosher, pardon the pun).

Do Latin fonts made by Turks have an Arabic feel to them?

To me, the ones that are worth talking about, yes. But in very subtle ways, like the wonderful diamond-shaped tittles in the work of Emin Barın (that Onur Yazıcıgil showed at last year's TypeCon).

* http://www.barincilt.com.tr/eng/eminbarin.html

I'll find out first-hand in less than a month* but I'd be shocked to see Arabic having become irrelevant. BTW, a good chunk of my talk will be about how Turkish type could help preserve their culture if/when they join Europe.

* http://typophile.com/node/91821

hhp

Very cool. But it depends who you ask. And I think this might be a difference between Sunni and Shee'a, noting that in Iran (a Shee'a nation) people learn Arabic for the sole reason of reading the Qur'aan. Turkey is Sunni, so I'm guessing Turkish has [long had] an "official" translation as well, I mean in Latin script. But what's the largest text on the typical cover? :-)
http://www.hilalplaza.com/ProductImages/DS/reg/LT01-NobleQuranTurkish.jpg

hhp

Keeping the curve tail-like (rather than arm-like) can also be had without resorting to the loop on the left with a join like this:

To me that wiggly bit at the join looks unstable and like a leaf that will break off.

On the Unicode discussion list I just have proposed a postponing of the encoding process. I think the matter needs time to mature.

Everson Mono

Also, it would be nice to see various example of the new Turkish lira in the context of the other monetary symbols that are in current use--particularly the Sterling, since it is the one most likely confused with the new entry.

FWIW — My explorations in Whitman have wound up somewhere between John’s Cambria and Craig’s latest:

So I did some thinking, and some rough sketching, and came up with:
- Three ways to do the top.
- Four "essential" terminal styles.
- Seven ways to handle the critical bottom-left.
- Two ways to modulate the bottom.
- And two ways to connect the bottom to the terminal.

To narrow down the permutations, here are ideas I'm getting comfortable with:
- The glyph should be a cross between caps and numerals.
- The best place to make it look like a capital is the top.
- The best place to make it belong with the numerals is the terminal.
- The bottom-left must have a singularity, probably a serif (but not a [closed] loop).
- The bottom "stroke" should be thin (assuming contrast), not least because I'm a fan of "rationalist" stroke contrast in the numerals anyway.
- Attaching an up-curving form immediately at the bottom of the stem is no good.
- The structure should be able to accommodate narrowness.

I'm starting to see two overall strategies to combine everything:
- Very conservative, where I'm ending up with something like what John first showed, and Kent just showed. Although it's solid, it also feels like a lost opportunity.
- Something akin to Craig's "rocker bottom" version, but less flamboyant (and with capital serifs up top). I think curving the bottom might be the key ingredient to making this click.

If this all sounds too detached from the making of glyphs, sorry, this is how I roll. But now I am ready to make glyphs.

hhp

Hrant,

How you roll is how you roll; however, you may be overthinking the subject. To me, it appears that the character is based on an uppercase D, so whatever works for the D will work for the currency symbol.

On the other hand, Occam’s razor isn’t the best tool to use all the time…

Craig, I love the bottom ones! Probably because I have a weakness for sharp implements... The extra Arabic flavor and the crescent allusion really kick it up a notch; I think the official structure should have been like this actually. I do have to worry about people at large (especially secularists) accepting it, but it has so much going for it (not least a strong deviation from the Euro).

Nick: guilty as charged.

hhp

Folks, please grant yourself a break from this Frankensteinism for a short while. This is decadence at its worst.
Reality will slam all those pieces back in our faces.

> Write the glyph out by hand a dozen times …

Yeah. Hic Rhodos. Hic salta.

Isn't it just a "t with stroke" (ŧ)?

To stir a cup of Darjeeling :-)

Michael, there's an interesting passage in a newly posted online article you might want to read:
http://designtraveler.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/turkey-part-i-the-young-t...
It's the paragraph following the photo captioned "Turkish Delight / Antique tobacco packaging from an earlier Turkey".

Andreas: I hope you don't think your stance is discouraging people from resolving this fascinating design problem.* For one thing I don't know how half an anchor is less "decadent" than one-third of a crescent... It might seem strange to see an Armenian defending Turks, but I hope you eventually realize that you're being unnecessarily offensive.

* I myself will be working on it after my imminent trip to Istanbul.

hhp

How about inverting the numeral digit seven upside-down and intersecting two parallel lines through its stem?

Just wanted to share a photo I took in Istanbul on the 19th:

This was pretty much the norm, although "TL" still significantly outnumbers usage of the new symbol. But I think soon enough we'll see some proper glyphs hitting the streets.

hhp

Moderators: klopiuj is a spammer.