Footnotes

* The x-height has translated in Greek (in half of the examples) as the kappa-height. Of course that isn’t a very safe assumption if you see curved and overshooting kappas, but then again, ‘x’ can do that too. :)



** We have ended up nominating six words for serifs: four from the Hegrade forum discussion in 2006 and two bonuses:

• serif = σέριφ (transliteration of the word “serif”)

• serif = πατούρα (patúra: flange, rabbet)

• serif = ακρεμόνας (akrémonas: tip of the branch)

• serif = ακρέμων (akrémon: tip of the branch, formal form of the above)

• serif = ακρότυπο (akrótipo: tip of the branch)

• serif = πέλμα (pélma: foot)



One more thing…

Greek is an alphabetic European script that, even if it is not written, always looks somewhat familiar especially in its typographic form. Nevertheless, to design it and typeset it correctly one needs to be familiar with its “peculiarity” compared to Latin. The Greek question mark is the Latin semicolon, the Greek semicolon is the Latin middle dot that is positioned a bit higher. The Greek lowercase always has accents and sometimes many accents and breath marks — if we set our text in Polytonic (not the official written system since 1982). But when written in capital letters, none of the accents and breath marks survive except for the dieresis. We prefer «French style quotes» and prefer our accents at the start of the sentence hanging. We even have our own ampersand, which is actually a conjunction of the word και (and), and it also has an uppercase form (there are two Unicode values). Then again, there is no keyboard layout to support it, so if you want to use it, then drag it or paste it from the character/glyph panel — if the font contains it. Even more bizarre is the Drachma symbol (Greek currency prior to the Euro) that never had a typographic form: the three consonants (δρχ) of the word were written before the number. If you are reminiscing those days when Greece had its own currency and you’d like to type it with style, our own Alverata has a few of them. :)

And lastly, what is needed: monotonic or polytonic Greek? In 2017 Google commissioned proposals for the standardisation of the Greek character set by defining the usage of Greek rather than simply following Unicode codepages. The sets have a specific structure and hierarchy:



General Use

• Core — Basic monotonic set for everyday modern Greek

• Plus — Basic polytonic set for scholarly Greek

• Expert — Small caps for Core and Plus sets, superscript letters



Scholarly Use

• Pro — Extended Polytonic set for ancient Greek studies

• Archaic — Variable letterforms for ancient texts, papyri

• Ancient — Musical symbols, Greek and Byzantine musical symbols

• Coptic — Liturgical language for Coptic church



Resources/Bibliography

Greek Letters: From Tablets to Pixels, Michael S. Macrakis (Oak Knoll Press, 1996)

Στοιχεία της τυπογραφικής τέχνης, Robert Bringhurst ;μετάφραση Γιώργος Δ. Ματθιόπουλος (2001)

Θέματα Αναπαραγωγής Και Εκτύπωσης, Klimis Mastoridis (1987)

Το γράψιμο και η αγωγή, Μαρία Αμαριώτου, (Φλάμμα, 1935)

Εγχειρίδιο Ελληνικής και Λατινικής παλαιογραφίας, [An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography], Edward Maunde Thompson ; μετάφραση Σπ. Λάμπρου (1903)

«Προβλήματα ελληνικής ορολογίας», discussion forum “Hegrade” (2006)

«Ανατομία του γράμματος», grDesign magazine (2013)

«Γράμματα – Τυπογραφία», Πανεπιστήμιο Δυτικής Αττικής, Τμήμα Γραφιστικής και Οπτικής Επικοινωνίας, Κατεύθυνση Γραφιστικής, Γ εξάμηνο σπουδών [undergraduate graphic design course material] (2019)

«Η ανατομία των τυπογραφικών στοιχείων», graficnotes.blogspot.com (2012)

«Εισαγωγή στην τυπογραφία», Πανεπιστήμιο Δυτικής Μακεδονίας Παιδαγωγικό Τμήμα Νηπιαγωγών, Αν. Καθηγήτρια: Ι. Βαμβακίδου [undergraduate pre-school education course material] (2015)



Files

Download the PDF Greek Type Anatomy.