Typography, Typography Everywhere
I noticed an interesting use of underlining at the gas pump today. I learned, when studying typography, that underlining is mostly a relic of the typewriter, which was incapable of emphasizing text with italic or bold typefaces, and that other means of emphasis are more aesthetically pleasing.
One problem with underlining words as a way of underscoring their importance is that the underlines interfere with the descenders– those "tails" of letters that descend below the baseline as in the lowercase letters g, j, p, q, and y. I once read that a proper underline breaks at the descenders to allow them to descend without interference.
I am happy to report that the typesetter of this sign knew well enough to underscore only the "round" of the word "ground" and let the descender of the lowercase g hang down without the interference of the underline.
You just never know where you’ll see an example of proficient typography! Er… typography! Yeah, that’s better.
Posted on December 22, 2007, in Communications & Media and tagged moblog, photos, typography. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
In answer to your question, Gilles, I do not know of any one sign for “thoughtful” but I do believe I have seen CONSIDER+FULL, CONSIDER (one-handed) + F-U-L-L, and simply “thoughtful” fingerspelled. In an ASL context, it is more likely that the concept of thoughtful will be expanded into a short discourse along the lines of, “Wow, you really thought about, ‘What would he like? What is his way? What is his taste?’ and you got me the perfect gift!” Such expanded discourse involving role playing and direct quotation is common is ASL, especially when there’s not one sign for a particular concept.
Hello,
I found your blog by googling “thoughtful asl” in an attempt to find a simple translation for the word “thoughtful.” Google sent me to your post about Sign Chi Do. What will the world create next?
gilles
LOL. Now that’s interesting. LOL