All Topics  
Glyph

 
Glyph

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Glyph
 
 
  Topics Glyph Topic Home

A glyph is an element of writing. Two or more glyphs representing the same symbol, whether interchangeable or context-dependent, are called allographs; the abstract unit they are variants of is called a grapheme
Grapheme

In typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in writing systems. Graphemes include letter , Chinese characters, numerals, punctuation marks, and all the individual symbols of any of the world's writing systems....
 or character
Character (computing)

In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written language form of a natural language....
. Glyphs may also be ligatures, that is, compound characters, or diacritic
Diacritic

A diacritic is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from the Greek language d?a???t???? ....
s.

term has been used in English since 1727, borrowed from glyphe in use by French antiquaries (since 1701), from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ???f?, glyphe, "carving," from the verb ???fe??, glęphein, "to hollow out, engrave, carve" (cognate to Latin glubere "to peel" and English cleave).

Compare the carved and incised "sacred glyphs" hieroglyphs, which have had a longer history in English dating from the first Elizabethan translation of Plutarch, who adopted "hieroglyphic" as a Latin adjective.

But "glyph" first came to widespread European attention with the engravings and in lithographs from Frederick Catherwood
Frederick Catherwood

Frederick Catherwood was an England artist of Northern Irish ancestry, and architect, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization....
's drawings of undeciphered glyphs of the Maya civilization in the early 1840s.

rchaeology, a glyph is a carved or inscribed symbol.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Glyph'
Start a new discussion about 'Glyph'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A glyph is an element of writing. Two or more glyphs representing the same symbol, whether interchangeable or context-dependent, are called allographs; the abstract unit they are variants of is called a grapheme
Grapheme

In typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in writing systems. Graphemes include letter , Chinese characters, numerals, punctuation marks, and all the individual symbols of any of the world's writing systems....
 or character
Character (computing)

In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written language form of a natural language....
. Glyphs may also be ligatures, that is, compound characters, or diacritic
Diacritic

A diacritic is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from the Greek language d?a???t???? ....
s.

Etymology

The term has been used in English since 1727, borrowed from glyphe in use by French antiquaries (since 1701), from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ???f?, glyphe, "carving," from the verb ???fe??, glęphein, "to hollow out, engrave, carve" (cognate to Latin glubere "to peel" and English cleave).

Compare the carved and incised "sacred glyphs" hieroglyphs, which have had a longer history in English dating from the first Elizabethan translation of Plutarch, who adopted "hieroglyphic" as a Latin adjective.

But "glyph" first came to widespread European attention with the engravings and in lithographs from Frederick Catherwood
Frederick Catherwood

Frederick Catherwood was an England artist of Northern Irish ancestry, and architect, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization....
's drawings of undeciphered glyphs of the Maya civilization in the early 1840s.

Maya G Log Cal D10 Ok

Archaeology

In archaeology, a glyph is a carved or inscribed symbol. It may be a pictogram
Pictogram

A Pictograph is a pictorial representation of an object. Earliest examples of pictographs include ancient or prehistoric drawings or paintings found on rock walls....
 or ideogram
Ideogram

An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. They can be a straighforward pictogram, or a more abstract symbol that is comprehensible only on the basis of prior convention....
, or part of a writing system
Writing system

A writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language....
 such as a syllable
Syllabary

A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional consonant sound followed by a vowel sound....
 or logogram
Logogram

A logogram, or logograph, is a grapheme which represents a word or a morpheme . This stands in contrast to phonogram , which represent phonemes or combinations of phonemes, and determinatives, which mark semantics....
.

Typography

In typography
Typography

Typography is the art and techniques of typesetting, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques....
, a glyph is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface
Typeface

In typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs....
, of a grapheme
Grapheme

In typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in writing systems. Graphemes include letter , Chinese characters, numerals, punctuation marks, and all the individual symbols of any of the world's writing systems....
, or sometimes several graphemes in combination (a composed glyph), or a part of a grapheme. In computing
Computing

Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and developing computer technology, computer hardware and computer software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology....
 as well as typography, the term character
Character (computing)

In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written language form of a natural language....
 refers to a grapheme or grapheme-like unit of text, as found in natural language
Natural language

In the philosophy of language, a natural language is a language that is spoken, Sign language, or writing by humans for general-purpose communication, as distinguished from formal languages and from constructed languages....
 writing system
Writing system

A writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language....
s (scripts). It may be a letter, a numeral
Numeral

The term numeral can refer to:* Numeral system, a system of mathematical notation for writing numbers* Number names, the words used in a language or writing system to represent numbers...
, a punctuation mark
Punctuation

Punctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters or numbers, including punctuation marks , Interword separation and indentation....
, or a pictographic or decorative symbol such as dingbat
Dingbat

A dingbat is an ornament, character or spacer used in typesetting, sometimes more formally known as a "printer's ornament" or "printer's character"....
s. A character or grapheme is an abstract unit of text, whereas a glyph is a graphical
Graphics

Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain....
 unit.

For example, the sequence ffi contains three characters, but can be represented by one glyph, the three characters being combined into a single unit known as a ligature
Ligature (typography)

In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components, and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms" where the specific shape of a letter depends on context such as surrounding letters or prox...
. Conversely, some typewriter
Typewriter

A typewriter is a Machine or electromechanical device with a set of "keys" that, when pressed, cause Typeface to be printed on a medium, usually paper....
s require the use of multiple glyphs to depict a single character (for example, two hyphen
Hyphen

A hyphen is a punctuation mark. It is used both to join words and also to separate syllables of a single word. It is often confused with the dash , which are longer and have different uses, and with the minus sign which is also longer....
s in place of an em-dash, or an overstruck apostrophe
Apostrophe

The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets. In English it has two main functions: it marks omissions, and it assists in marking the possessives of all nouns and many pronouns....
 and period
Full stop

A full stop or period , is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of several different types of Sentence s in English language and many other languages....
 in place of an exclamation mark
Exclamation mark

An exclamation mark or exclamation point is a punctuation mark: ! It is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume, and often marks the end of a sentence....
).

Most typographic glyphs originate from the characters of a typeface
Typeface

In typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs....
. In a typeface each character typically corresponds to a single glyph, but there are exceptions, such as a font used for a language with a large alphabet or complex writing system, where one character may correspond to several glyphs, or several characters to one glyph.

Graphonomics

In graphonomics
Graphonomics

Graphonomics is the interdisciplinary field directed towards thescientific analysis of the handwriting process and the handwritten product.Researchers from handwriting recognition, forensic handwriting examination, kinesiology, psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, paleography and neuroscience cooperate in order to achieve...
, the term glyph is used for a non-character, i.e: either a sub-character or multi-character pattern.

Other uses

  • In the mobile text input technologies, Glyph is a family of text input methods based on the decomposition of letters into basic shapes.


See also

  • Allograph
  • Character (computing)
    Character (computing)

    In computer and machine-based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme-like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written language form of a natural language....
  • Character encoding
    Character encoding

    A character encoding system consists of a code that pairs a sequence of character from a given character set with something else, such as a sequence of natural numbers, octet or electrical pulses, in order to facilitate the transmission of data through telecommunication networks and/or Computer data storage of Character in compute...
  • Hieroglyph
  • Punchcutting
    Punchcutting

    In traditional typography, punchcutting is the craft of cutting letter punches in steel from which matrix were made in copper for Type foundry in the letterpress era....
  • Typeface
    Typeface

    In typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs....