<p>I work on a rather specific subject, namely developement and inventing of writing systems (simply - alphabets). For some years it was just a hobby and creative exercise, but with time this hobby developed in a serious work of mine, with a series of very interesting discoveries which could lead in serious improvement of reading performance. First thing which motivated my work was the clear understanding of the fact that the Latin alphabet (Roman 'minuscule') is the most readable system of all existing in the world. So at least one has something to start with. At the same time it is clear that the one and the only objective criteria for the developement is the readability of the system, and that all imposes the task very clearly - the more readable the system is, the better the system is, so we have a strictly definite and objective scale of "goodness" of the system. 
On the other hand this task is (IMHO) of a great social and knowledge importance. BUT, strangely enough this subject is so little examined and almost does not develop, if at all. So it seems like I am pioneering this knowledge area, since I have never found any serios works or even examination attempts on the subject, well aside one hobbyist site <a href="http://www.omniglot.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.omniglot.com</a>, however I find most of the works presented there childish and none of them are even close to the Latin regarding readability.
So it turns out that my last succesful "workmates" were medieval masters (e.g. Claude Garamond), whom is the development of modern Latin minuscule is ascribed, and who stay "unbeaten" almost 500 years! Very interesting topic, but since its a Q&amp;A forum I'll try to put clear questions, which are worrying me much:</p>

<ol>
<li>From your point of view, how big is the importance of text information in our world by comparison to other media, like audio/visual media, and how the priorities of those types of media will rearrange in the future?</li>
<li>What do you think about the fact that there are absolutely no success or significant effort to develop this important tool (writing system) or at least attempt to define guidelines for its developement?</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-21T01:37:51.037Z
Interesting subject. Written information on the web is turning towards more "scannable" format - "the F pattern". Short paragraphs, bolded key statements to act as anchors. Not many people actually read all they see on the web. If your alphabet helps with scannability, it could be useful.
Alex Stone
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-21T20:53:43.100Z
@Alex Actually layout aspects is also a part of my work. One of my concepts which make use of the invented glyphs is a representation of program code, where standard structures like loops for example (for, while) are represented as special graphemes. Indeed, it can reduce eye-strain seriously, much more than any color-highlighting. I will update the question in a while, with a pair of sketches just to make the concept more clear.
Mikhail V
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-24T04:31:47.227Z
@MikhailV is there a venue where I can discuss this topic with you in more detail.
JDługosz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-24T11:58:49.873Z
@jdlugosz the above mentioned site omniglot.com has a good forum for discussion, I'm signed there as mikhail. Or you can drop a message on mikhailwas at gmail.com for personal talk.
Mikhail V
<perception><learning><performance><reading>
Writing system, its future and social importance
Mikhail V
# Writing system, its future and social importance

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-11-20)

I work on a rather specific subject, namely developement and inventing of writing systems (simply - alphabets). For some years it was just a hobby and creative exercise, but with time this hobby developed in a serious work of mine, with a series of very interesting discoveries which could lead in serious improvement of reading performance. First thing which motivated my work was the clear understanding of the fact that the Latin alphabet (Roman 'minuscule') is the most readable system of all existing in the world. So at least one has something to start with. At the same time it is clear that the one and the only objective criteria for the developement is the readability of the system, and that all imposes the task very clearly - the more readable the system is, the better the system is, so we have a strictly definite and objective scale of "goodness" of the system.
On the other hand this task is (IMHO) of a great social and knowledge importance. BUT, strangely enough this subject is so little examined and almost does not develop, if at all. So it seems like I am pioneering this knowledge area, since I have never found any serios works or even examination attempts on the subject, well aside one hobbyist site <http://www.omniglot.com>, however I find most of the works presented there childish and none of them are even close to the Latin regarding readability.
So it turns out that my last succesful "workmates" were medieval masters (e.g. Claude Garamond), whom is the development of modern Latin minuscule is ascribed, and who stay "unbeaten" almost 500 years! Very interesting topic, but since its a Q&A forum I'll try to put clear questions, which are worrying me much:

1. From your point of view, how big is the importance of text information in our world by comparison to other media, like audio/visual media, and how the priorities of those types of media will rearrange in the future?
2. What do you think about the fact that there are absolutely no success or significant effort to develop this important tool (writing system) or at least attempt to define guidelines for its developement?

**Tags:** perception, learning, performance, reading

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Interesting subject. Written information on the web is turning towards more "scannable" format - "the F pattern". Short paragraphs, bolded key statements to act as anchors. Not many people actually read all they see on the web. If your alphabet helps with scannability, it could be useful.  
> **username_0**: @Alex Actually layout aspects is also a part of my work. One of my concepts which make use of the invented glyphs is a representation of program code, where standard structures like loops for example (for, while) are represented as special graphemes. Indeed, it can reduce eye-strain seriously, much more than any color-highlighting. I will update the question in a while, with a pair of sketches just to make the concept more clear.  
> **username_2**: @MikhailV is there a venue where I can discuss this topic with you in more detail.  
> **username_0**: @jdlugosz the above mentioned site omniglot.com has a good forum for discussion, I'm signed there as mikhail. Or you can drop a message on mikhailwas at gmail.com for personal talk.  

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## 0 answers

