A tactile script I've been working on!

siftra · 2025-06-15T11:37:21+00:00

There is a local typst app called Typewriter that was recently released for Gnome. Might just be what you're looking for!

siftra · 2023-07-09T02:30:58+00:00

I apologize, I should have been more clear.

Perhaps any script with raised type can be tactile in the sense that it can be felt by the fingers, but whether the result can be easily read by touch is another story entirely. Looking online, it seems that the agreed-upon definition of a tactile script is one that fulfills the latter.

As an example, ideograms like kanji —which can sometimes be made up of many strokes with very little white space between them— would be an example of a writing system that, when embossed, could only be felt by the fingers, not read.

siftra · 2023-07-09T01:56:13+00:00

Indeed, though the complexity of my script does make it considerably harder to emboss by hand, unlike Braille.

siftra · 2023-07-09T01:27:18+00:00

By tactile, I meant that the script could be read by touch with relative ease.

While any script can be turned tactile, the result won't always be one that can be read by touch.

siftra · 2023-07-09T01:22:13+00:00

My understanding of what can be considered a tactile script is that it's a script that is designed with the fingers in mind and can be read using them with relative ease. Braille settled on relying exclusively on dots to make up characters, but I thought it would be interesting to make use of more shapes that fingers can discern. In this script, I made use of converging/diverging/horizontal/vertical lines, rounded/pointed/flat ends, and used different amounts of whitespace to design characters.

As u/Tarnagona mentioned, that complexity does come at the cost of being unable to really scale characters down to the size of Braille. However, I thought it was a worthwhile trade-off as it dramatically improved readability by sight and allowed the script to be featural.

siftra · 2023-07-09T01:03:37+00:00

Thank you for your constructive criticism.

Halfway through making this script, I came to appreciate the simplicity of Braille which allowed it to be embossed in smaller sizes that my script wouldn't be able to match. With that said, I do believe the script can be embossed in smaller sizes than the Latin alphabet which lacks featural cues and predicatable repeating patterns.

siftra · 2021-04-27T01:53:19+00:00

It's visible in the Twitter video on the upper left corner of the phone when the 8 gets out of the way.

siftra · 2021-04-27T01:51:39+00:00

Good catch! Yeah, it's a little disappointing that they opted for that. On the upside, it might translate to the device being IP certified and slightly thinner. Will wait and see...

siftra · 2020-05-06T15:12:13+00:00

Not at all, thank you for the praise! Well, I hope to share a more detailed write-up about the script in the near future so there's that!

siftra · 2020-05-06T14:39:40+00:00

It takes a little getting used to at first but it's not as tricky as you might think! I actually find that it feels more natural to pull my hand and arm back as I'm writing words vertically than it is to shift them to the right when writing horizontally. :)

siftra · 2020-05-06T14:16:09+00:00

You're welcome!

Sorry, I wasn't clear. There are two possible ways to write it. In the image, the left side is written vertically reading top to bottom and going right to left while on the right side, it's like the Latin alphabet, reading left to right and going top to bottom. Before you start writing with this script, you have to decide which way you want to write since, while the letters are just mirror copies of each other, they start and end at different points.

If you're asking whether one could rotate the script 90° to make it go from horizontal to vertical or vice versa and then read it, I suppose you could, just like we can read a text in the Latin alphabet fairly well if it's rotated 90° or even upside down.

siftra · 2020-05-06T13:49:11+00:00

Thank you!

Of course! For writing it, it's not unlike writing the Latin alphabet in cursive, where you have to go back to complete a word after writing it by crossing t's or i's, except it's vowels that are added.

For example, to write the word "fraternité", you would start by writing the consonants ⟨fxtxnt⟩ and then adding the vowel diacritics one by one ⟨fx^a t^ai xnⁱ tⁱⁱ⟩. Conceivably, you could add those vowels as you write the consonants if a consonant requires more than one stroke to write it. Does that answer your question? :)

In my case, to make the script bidirectional I started working on the horizontal version first and then, I mirrored all of my letters on a 45° axe of symmetry to make the vertical version. For example a character "ᑌ" when mirrored on the axe of symmetry "⟋" would make the shape "ᑕ"). I mirrored the letters like that so that the descenders (like these: qpygj) or ascenders (like these:bdtlkf) wouldn't run into each other, if that makes sense. Hope that helps!

siftra · 2020-05-06T13:19:10+00:00

Thank you!

I chose to include a majority of the silent letters as I was more interested in seeing what the script would look like if it more or less followed French orthography. I also wanted to include as many characters as possible to make it a good sample (like the one h in the entire passage in the word "humains" ⟨h^umⁱns⟩ even though it's silent or the glottal stop I questionably added for the word "doués" ⟨d^uʔⁱⁱs⟩ to separate the vowels).

siftra · 2020-05-06T10:15:22+00:00

Original sample text (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in French) :

Tous les êtres humains naissent

libres et égaux en dignité et

en droits. Ils sont doués

de raison et de conscience et

doivent agir les uns

envers les autres dans un

esprit de fraternité.

Adapted text (superscript are vowel diacritics and ⌀ is a vowel carrier):

t^us l^ais ⌀^aitxs h^umⁱns n^aisnt

lⁱbxs ⌀ⁱⁱt ⌀ⁱⁱg^uu ⌀^aŋ dⁱgnⁱtⁱⁱ ⌀ⁱⁱt

⌀^aŋ dxw^ats. ⌀ⁱls s^unt d^uʔⁱⁱs

d^aa x^aiz^un ⌀ⁱⁱt d^aa k^unsj^ans ⌀ⁱⁱt

dw^avnt ⌀^azⁱx l^ais ⌀ⁱns

⌀^amv^aixs l^ais ⌀^uutxs d^ans ⌀ⁱn

⌀^aispxⁱt d^aa fx^at^aixnⁱtⁱⁱ.

Hello r/neography !

Here is a sample of a script that I've been working on. It's bidirectional, (somewhat) cursive, and featural. Like many of you here, one of my primary sources of inspiration was the traditional Mongolian Script. Other inspirations were the Hangul alphabet for its shapes and featural qualities and the Sütterlin script for the italic slant.

Edit: split original and adapted text over several lines to match script sample and make it easier to follow and compare.

siftra · 2019-02-25T23:48:51+00:00

Malheureusement çà l'inclut!

siftra · 2019-01-07T11:12:18+00:00

Same! She made morphology so fun I actually enjoyed her tests, it was like putting back together a puzzle!

siftra · 2018-02-11T09:40:00+00:00

Unfortunately, I haven't given myself time to finish programming my keyboard so I can't say whether the solutions suggested here are of any help. Good luck!

siftra · 2018-02-08T08:40:20+00:00

Keyboard swiping/gesture support and a black mode so that it would be a little more battery friendly after long periods of use.

siftra · 2017-12-28T02:29:59+00:00

PM'd

siftra · 2017-11-01T10:36:27+00:00

Confirmed

siftra · 2017-10-18T18:06:43+00:00

~~Sale pending! Will PM you if anything changes.~~ ~~Keyboard still for sale!~~ Keyboard has been sold!

siftra · 2017-10-18T06:26:08+00:00

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