Seeking feedback on an article about word illustration: EDIT

[rseitz]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Seeking feedback on an article I wrote about a word illustration challenge: how to express the meaning of EDIT? Some questions addressed in the article are: How to superimpose two letters while maintaining the legibility of both?  What parts of a letter can be concealed while retaining the letter's visual identity?  There are 57+ illustrations of my steps toward a solution to the challenge.

Here's the link: http://rudiseitz.com/2012/12/16/wrestling-words/

I'm very interested in 1) comments on what you found interesting or provocative so I can concentrate on those points in future work,
2) suggestions for improving the article (things I've overlooked, things that aren't clear, mistakes, etc.), 3) any references to articles or papers that address similar topics. (And, if anyone else is inspired to devise their own solution to the challenge, that would be great as well!)

As a mostly self-educated typophile, I'm glad to join this forum and am looking forward to learning from the community.

-Rudi

[rseitz]

I'm sorry, I just don't see the connection between this comment and my post⸮

[Chris Dean]

That’s because it was (deleted) spam. Sorry for the confusion.

[rseitz]

Chris, thanks for the clarification. Actually, since I had been experimenting with the irony mark (⸮) earlier today, I thought I'd try out the symbol here to indicate that I was making a "sarcastic" reply to the spam. (I did realize that it was spam.) My earlier experiments with the mark are here:
http://rudiseitz.com/2013/01/02/irony-mark/
And I've posted a followup proposal about differentiating ironic questions from ironic statements:
http://rudiseitz.com/2013/01/02/punctuating-ironic-questions/
Comments on those posts are welcome too.

[Chris Dean]

Cool. I was actually wondering that that meant. If you’re on a mac, whats the keyboard command for that?

Can I use it to end a passive-agressive, sarcastic, rhetorical question? I can think of a TON of uses for if it that’s the case.

Has this cought on as a thing? I haven’t seen it anywhere on FB or Twitter.

[Chris Dean]

Just looked at your posts. Tell me if I am using it correctly:

You’re asking someone who’s unemployed to loan you money⸮

Or even better:

You talkin’ to me⸮

[rseitz]

Chris, I like your examples.

Yes, interest in it seems to flare up every once in a while, and I know there have been some lengthy discussions of it here on typophile. I recently came upon this carefully written three-part summary of irony punctuation: http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/10/irony-sarcasm-marks-part-3-of-3/

[Chris Dean]

I just did a copy paste. The rendering issue doesn’t surprize me.

I see your test fine.

Safari 6.0.2
Mac OSX 10.8.2

I would leave this thread as it is. If you want to make a new one, do so, and post a link here (as well as a link back to here from the new one. Feel free to copy/paste any content we have generated so far from here.

Don’t hyperlink “a new thread” but rather “The new thread title.”

Same goes for the link back to this thread from the new one. Don’t hyperlink “an older thread” but “The older thread title.”

This way, your original question still stands.

[rseitz]

Chris, you asked another question--how to enter the irony mark on a Mac. I see you found a way. For anyone else interested, the easiest way I know is copying and pasting the character from somewhere else. You can also do CMD+OPTION+T to get the Characters menu -- you'll find it under Punctuation, but (for me at least) it doesn't show up at the top with the other question-mark-like symbols--it's near the dotted "therefore" symbols. You can also search for Unicode character 2E2E.

Since I started experimenting with the irony mark, I've learned that it doesn't render properly in many current browser/platform configurations. I just posted an "Irony Test" so you can see if it's rendering in yours: http://rudiseitz.com/2013/01/04/irony-test/

Moderators -- should we move this to a different thread? I've had no takers so far re: my original question, but I'm sure there are some folks around who'd like to discuss irony punctuation.

This is a related typophile thread from 2006-7: https://typography.guru/forums/topic/38817-forwarding