What is the field of study or classification system for indexing glyphs by their visual characteristics?
December 15, 2010 1:23 PM Subscribe
What is the field of study or classification system for indexing glyphs by their visual characteristics?
This is one of those questions where there is probably a word for an existing field of study, but I do not know what this word is.
Topology would not quite cover it — the glyph for the number eight, the letter B, and the infinity symbol both have two holes in the middle.
Example: Indiana Jones spies some markings on a wall, and, though they are faintly familiar, he is unable to place them. He can, however, describe them to a colleague via telegram. Open versus closed figures, axes of symmetry or none at all, straight versus curved lines, presence of dots or not, and so forth.
Said colleague consults, say, the Chillicoathe-Penning Index using these descriptions and comes up with some candidate glyphs, their point of origin, and their names, then returns the telegram.
This is one of those questions where there is probably a word for an existing field of study, but I do not know what this word is.
Topology would not quite cover it — the glyph for the number eight, the letter B, and the infinity symbol both have two holes in the middle.
Example: Indiana Jones spies some markings on a wall, and, though they are faintly familiar, he is unable to place them. He can, however, describe them to a colleague via telegram. Open versus closed figures, axes of symmetry or none at all, straight versus curved lines, presence of dots or not, and so forth.
Said colleague consults, say, the Chillicoathe-Penning Index using these descriptions and comes up with some candidate glyphs, their point of origin, and their names, then returns the telegram.
Best answer: I'd go with historical orthographic typology. Or historical orthography. Or historical typology.
Also, historical typography.
posted by iamkimiam at 2:10 PM on December 15, 2010
Also, historical typography.
posted by iamkimiam at 2:10 PM on December 15, 2010
Best answer: The organization of Japanese dictionaries by radicals is called jikeibiki (字形引き , lit. "character shape arrangement") or "logographic collation."
posted by jedicus at 2:17 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by jedicus at 2:17 PM on December 15, 2010
Best answer: Epigraphy? Is that what you're looking for?
posted by smokingloon at 3:24 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by smokingloon at 3:24 PM on December 15, 2010
Response by poster: At this point, I think that just gathering vocabulary words is probably as good as it will get for this particular question. Thank you.
posted by adipocere at 6:45 AM on December 16, 2010
posted by adipocere at 6:45 AM on December 16, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:51 PM on December 15, 2010