>> I feel that it would be helpful if there were symbols that could be used in >> a non-language-specific manner for phrases such as "Hello" and "Thank you" >> and "Best regards," and so on.
> Most ideographs in use are pictographs, for obvious reasons. But it would be > nice indeed to have ideograms for “thanks”, “please”, “yes”, “no”, “perhaps” > – all those common notions which cannot be de-*picted* in the true sense of > the word. I have been thinking about trying to produce some designs for such ideograms. I am thinking that each of the designs should be the same overall width as its height, with the height being the same as the height of a lowercase h so that the designs can be used intermixed with text. There is a matter on which I seek discussion please. Bearing in mind that the designs could be used intermixed with text, that implies that sometimes the text could be left to right text and that sometimes the text could be right to left text. So how should the designs be designed? Should the designs be symmetrical, such that displayed on its own there is no indication as to whether a design is from left to right or from right to left? Or, should the designs be not symmetrical, with two versions for each design: one such that displayed on its own there is indication that the design is from left to right and the other such that displayed on its own there is indication that the design is from right to left? Or, should there be three versions for each design? With advanced font technology, maybe the particular glyph design that is displayed could be automated depending upon the direction of the text nearby? The use of variation selectors could perhaps mean that both monochrome and colourful versions for each design could be used. William Overington 8 February 2013
