www.alphadictionary.com

Dear Dr. Goodword,

I like the unicode support of this Forum and I am glad that my avatar is now displayed quite neatly. But could I be honest to tell that the text appearence of the new presents some difficulty to me?

1. Text Colour
The difference between the colour of a plain text and that of hyper-linked one is so small that I need to mouse over to find a link. Or is there no difference of colour currently?

2. Font
Somehow the font shape is difficult to read. It slows my reading ability. Maybe could you please provide two or three font options?

Flam

I have just made a post and realised that a URL link I created in it appears in pale blue. This is a lot easier to recognise. Thanks Doc for your quick reconfiguration.

Flam

edit: oh, no. I was just looking at the link I had just created. This means that my browser recognises it as already opened once.

edit2: The colour problem is slightly alleviated when I browse this Forum by a Mac computer.

I have a slight problem with the Hebrew text. I prefer a more Times-like font, but when I copy a line of Hebrew to Word, the words are all right, and I get more Bible-like font automatically -- but the words are in reverse order! Do any of you know of any settings in Word to remedy this?

well, let us know what yo guys decide on.

Katy

...Like newly-weds picking out curtain material!

For getting unicode just right, you may want to look at http://unicode.coeurlumiere.com/. It helpfully gives the codes in decimal (hexidecimal doesn't seem to work here).

I was having a conversation with a teacher at our local primary school tonight. She said that she thought sans-serif fonts were easier for children to read because the letter shapes are given in their 'pure' form. However, some research has suggested that dyslexics find serif fonts easier, as the serifs enhance the distinctive shape of each letter, whereas sans-serif makes all letters look more alike.

After years of Sino-Japanese-squiggle-torture, I wonder what our Flamster thinks to all of this!

-> Garzo, serifs intact

personally I find comic sans easiest to read, I vote for that. With my sight as compromised as it is, I can't tell you how often I must edit my posts going from the tiny 'fine print' compose mode to spidery post post. When my unlearned dyslexic fingers have mangled my very intelligent ideas to a mishmash I have to usually fix much of my posts.

Katy
That's Comic sans!

. . .the serifs enhance the distinctive shape of each letter, whereas sans-serif makes all letters look more alike.

This is how children who have just learnt their ABC write letters. I think round, even-spaced, similar-looking alphabets should give comics hand-made warmth. I wager the difference between the largest and the smallest letters is much smaller in sans-serif fonts than in serif ones. "Mike Will Immitate Ilka (I miss her on board)" is a good sentence to test this.

My problem with sans-serifs is that I have difficulty in speeding through them. I cannot tell what's going on in my brain but sans-serifs stick out as single letters so much that it obstruct my recognising the word as a single unit of analysis (or lexis to be exact).

Letters needed in Japanese orthography, including non-kanji varieties, have sans-serif and serif fonts (the latter usually called Mincho, or of Ming dynasty). Generally I like serifs (if it's not MS Mincho) for anything that exceeds two A4 pages. Sans-serif varieties look cute but they quickly become tiresome to my eyes because their strokes are bolder and their size are the same as serif fonts.

Can you write this ---> 龍 (dragon, 17 strokes) on paper? I would imagine you need a magnifying glass.

Flam or
龍太郎

Can you write this ---> 龍 (dragon, 17 strokes) on paper? I would imagine you need a magnifying glass.

Flam or
龍太郎

I can't even SEE it, it's just a 龍 to me. sorry

Katy

And the politics of it all!

Sans-serifs are the supposedly modern, socialist workers of typography: no frippery or frills. Whereas serifs are classical, conservative, toga-wearing letters (it is difficult to tuck everything in!). Perahps that is why National Socialists adored Fraktur so much. I vote that we don't use that.

-> Garzo, more Arial than Times.

I kinda doubt if our input is anything more than desultry imaginings.

Katy

I have a slight problem with the Hebrew text.

Anders, have you tried adjusting the paragraph formatting? A simple method to do this (if you have a Windows-based PC with support for multiple languages installed) is the following:

1. Place the insertion point in the paragraph that you want to change or select several paragraphs.

2. To have text begin from the left, click Left-to-Right on the Formatting toolbar; to have text begin from the right, click Right-to-Left on the Formatting toolbar.
Note: Alternatively, on the Format menu you can click Paragraph, click the Indents and Spacing tab, and then click the appropriate Direction option.

I only have English language support installed on my PC, so I'm guessing that's why I don't have a Direction option on my Indents and Spacing tab for my Paragraph Settings.

-Tim

P.S. Forgot to mention that the above is in reference to Microsoft Word. (I use Office 2000.) Similar control is probably available in Open Office.

And I generally prefer serif fonts to sans serif, as well.

-Tim

Thanks, Tim.

I'll be trying it. I have had similar problems with Arabo-Persian, and just used trial and error in copying and pasting to get it right, so I need to find out.

...

Can you write this ---> 龍 (dragon, 17 strokes) on paper? I would imagine you need a magnifying glass.
...
龍太郎

Just remember that three 女 (women) are a match for four 龍 (dragons)....

Henri

PS : When I count, I get 16 strokes for 龍. But admittedly, it's easier to keep track of the strokes if one writes 龙 - or the Japanese 竜 - instead....

After finding the Mojikyo font, I can view and print the "four dragons" character, but I suppose it would be impossible to use it in a post.