Nikita Nova — designer.
Nikita Nova — designer.
Let us remember the Greeks, Romans and similar Chechiks in rags. They used to write what was lying on the ground: stones, twigs… And the Greek alphabet was built so that all glyphs - letters - were written from left to right.
For what?
Ctrl+Z was not brought to the stone slab. Each stroke must be done the first time, and instead of an Apple Pencil, use a chisel and a hammer.
Physical limitations of writing. We write from left to right - this way you can start each letter from the place where the previous one ends (taking into account the letters). How to measure the distance for a letter that is written from right to left if you don’t know how much space it will take up? If you measure more, there will be an extra space; if you measure less, it won’t fit.
The Greek alphabet is ideal for those who write from left to right: it was originally designed to type large swathes of text with minimal error and expense at a time when the cost of a spelling, punctuation or aesthetic error was high.
The letter “I” does not fit into this system. Conduct an experiment: you can do it mentally, or better yet, on a piece of paper. Start writing the letters “M”, “B”, “K”. Each letter begins on the left, and the next one written joins the previous one nicely. If we need mathematical precision, we will build a grid and be able to quickly check the width of the grid and unify the set.
What if you write the letter “I” in this ideal system? Let’s say they measured out the approx. And what next? How long to retreat? By eye? Do I trust my eye enough to measure the ideal distance for a letter?
Letters are not just a set of sticks. They are a source of information and a way to transmit it, an exclusively applied thing. So a new system is needed. Firstly, with a minimal chance of error - for ease of use. Secondly, it is built on simple modern technologies for ease of replication.
And when such a system took shape, humanity began to actively scale. Stones and twigs were replaced by feathers, paper… We stopped depending on the instrument we used to write. And here the familiar import substitution comes into the story.
In the 18th century, Peter the Great established the familiar form of the letter “I”, which is written from right to left. Then stone slabs, birch bark and clay tablets were already forgotten, and feathers became the new norm. For them, any movements in different directions are not a problem.
You can scribble even the entire alphabet without restrictions on hand movement. For example, this is what the Chinese did: remember hieroglyphs - their writing system initially assumed free movement of the hand across space, from which the art of calligraphy was even born.
If humanity had not chosen the path of globalization and remained Greeks in rags, we would never have thought of turning over the “R” and creating an “I”.
The fact that we can write the letter “I” has become a symbol of progress for me, which motivates me to be more curious about everything new and look at the old in an innovative way. What if this has already become a rudiment?