<very subjective> (1) About Switzerland’s ß-substitution: In German there’s a fairly rigid coherence between how you write a word an how you speak it. And a basic rule (not without exceptions, but very few) is, that a vowel before a doubled consonant is spoken short. So the word « Floss » (in Germany »Floß«, engl. “raft”) would have to be pronounced with a short /o/ – which is a completely other word (»floss«, engl. “flowed”). I won’t say this is a demonstration for writing German perfectly well, it’s a solution for writing if you don’t want to use ß. But in Germany and Austria we want (at least I want ☺).
(2) About the difference between ẞ and ß: The latin letter capital sharp s often stands alone for the same reasons as all the other capital letters – when you use it in an URL, when it’s meant as a logo or when you refer to it directly. That’s of course not the major task of a letter, but it has to work there, too. A wonderful example for refering the ẞ directly is … surprise: this web page. Imagine ẞ and ß wouldn’t be distinguishable; you wouldn’t understand a lot of comments here. </very subjective> (3) There’s another gallery with ẞ: http://www.typografie.info/2/album.php?albumid=13 . Of course this one, too, won’t show the perfect solution. But it demonstrates something more important: Bruno, also if creating a absolutely new letter is some of the most pleasing work, there are *already* are some limits how a ẞ should look like. The basic structure is fixed. And not only by digital fonts but also by older book titles and grave stones (see also Paul’s visit at a stonemason, comment #22). A /S/ with a slash for example wouldn’t be “entirely what is expected” (as Paul said in comment #71). The main challenge isn’t to create a representation form of the capital variant of ß but to design a shape of the existing letter ẞ that works for the clean and genuisly reduced Ubuntu font. The ẞ gives an opportunity only a few other letters provide (like & or ¶): They show the personal style and spirit of the font. Not by making an anomalous beast but by finding a perfect form that simply fits. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/650498 Title: Expansion: 'ẞ' LATIN CAPTIAL LETTER SHARP S (U+1E9E) -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
