Arc Script – An alternative writing tool script
What is Arc-Script?
Arc-script uses the “Arc-pen”, a writing tool invented to explore alternative approaches to how
writing text could have evolved.
”It’s an imaginary writing system that evolved by using a tool with 2 points instead of 1”.
What is the Arc-Pen?
The arc-pen is basically a compass with fixed length. It could write in 2 main ways.
Carving : Using a compass with a sharp points on both sides, jab one end into the material and
rotate the other to produce clean arcs and circles.
Writing : A compass already has a writing tool attached to one side, this has both.
Basically a standard compass is half of each. An arc pen has only 2 sharp points or 2 pens. One
major advantage of this writing tool is that lines are all perfect and you don’t need to train
penmanship skills much at all. Simply put “everyone has near perfect handwriting without
practice”. There are very little motor skills required, tremors and shakes don't matter as much either.
Arc-script rules
Such a tool can be used to write anything you want, especially if you just use one side, then it can
do anything a regular pen can do. So we need some design rules to ensure we use the arc-pen to
create a writing system unique to the tool.
1. Continuous contact – for each character the neither pen is ever lifted. If you allow the pen to be lifted
then all you have a is regular pen that can make nice circles and double lines.
2. Both points always engaged – If you allow lifting of one side then the possible characters and
designs become incredibly numerous. This is not a bad thing, but if you disallow this then it restricts
the number of possibilities and creates a set of fundamental symbols that represent and highlight
some interesting underlying principles of the tool, geometry, and visual differentiation.
3. Only one point moves at a time – allowing the both points to slide at the same time creates double
lines and a huge number of possibilities, we want to restrict ourselves to just arc lines so that the
script can explore some interesting and unique principles and patterns.
The Arc-Pen
The arc pen is constructed by modifying 2 pens so they have spring tension on retractable tips. This
is important because you want to apply more pressure to the pivoting side while still letting the
moving side make full contact.
If you just strap 2 pens together then you will find that if you apply pressure to one side then there
is little or no pressure on the opposite side and it will have gaps in its arcs. If you don’t apply
enough pressure to one side then the pivot point is not strong enough and it slips.
I made a video which demonstrates and explains all this much better, I highly recommend watching
it. There are many visual explanations which are much easier to convey through video.
Arc-Pen Youtube Video : https://youtu.be/IFVKSOC6iCY
Characters
To help further limit the number of possible characters, I will add a few more rules :
No double-back or retracing lines. Lines can cross, but no overlapping.
Max 4 Strokes. No switching the point of rotation more than 3 times per character
Length does not matter. The length of the arc does not define a character.
Rotation and mirroring does not matter. A rotation and/or mirror are the same character
*A “stroke” is defined as a an arc drawn until the point of rotation is switched.
**An arc connecting to or crossing another arc defines unique characters, not length.
Making the symbols immune to rotation and mirroring is an interesting quality, it means it doesn’t
matter what orientation you read from, if viewed from behind or seen as reflection in a mirror, the
letters never get confused. This could be interesting for those with dyslexia.
With these rules here are characters that can be created (I did not include every possible character,
some I omitted because lines were too close to hard to distinguish. I also probably missed some)
First stroke RED, Second stroke GREEN, Third stroke BLUE, fourth stroke BLACK
Usage
Arc script can be used for many types of writing systems. Alphabet, abjad, syllabary, logography,
etc..
With this restricted set it is easily turned into an alphabet, and possibly even abjad or syllabary. It’s
not impossible to imagine it being used as a logography, but I imagine some of the rules I used here
to restrict the number of characters would have to be relaxed, logographies usually need many more
characters.
It could probably make a decent featural writing system. The arcs, circles, and various shapes can
make good representations of mouth, tongue, throat locations and other components. (A featural
writing system is one where the symbols are iconic representations of the physical production of the
sounds, eg. mouth shape, areas of throat involved in sound, etc..)
For now I will just create a simple English alphabet by choosing some characters I consider
relatively easy to distinguish and write.
A I O
E Y U
C H N T
B J P V
D K Q W
F L R X
G M S Z
I made all the vowels characters without circles and consonants all have a full circle.
I assigned the symbols roughly based of number of strokes and frequency of letter usage in English.
The most commonly used letters (most common letters in order are ETAOINSRH….)
Symbols could also easily be group by phonetic similarity, but I will not go into featural design in
this document. This alphabet is designed to use a restricted set, featural may be best if not restricted.
On the right is an example of the word “orbital”
with the characters rotated and mirrored in random
ways, as you can see they are still easily legible
orbital
(assuming you you know what the symbols are in
one orientation)
Below is a quote by Issac Newton in a font created
for this Arc-script alphabet. As you can see, it is not
particularly space/pen-stroke efficient, but that is not the point of arc script, it is meant to explore
the possibilities of the Arc-pen writing tool. One could imagine that the writing system could have
evolved into a new form meant for single point pens over time and mutated into forms that retain
some bit of their original form but become more efficient.
The description of right lines and circles
upon which geometry is founded
belongs to mechanics
Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines
but requires them to be drawn.
Isaac Newton
The description of right lines and circles upon which geometry is founded belongs to mechanics Geometry does not
teach us to draw these lines but requires them to be drawn
Isaac Newton
Download the Arc-script font file used in the quote above http://www.dscript.org/ascript.ttf
Arc-Script, the Arc-Pen, and everything in this document are creative commons, free to copy, edit, and even sell
or use in commercial projects with no royalty or fee.
Like this? You may also like….
Dscript 2D writing system : http://dscript.org/dscript.pdf
Dscript is a 2D writing system, it allows words to be writen as strings and characters that are still legible. It is
not ideal for computer use, and in fact is very resistant to OCR (computer Optical Character Recognition).
Cscript Computer-Human Bi-freindly Script : http://dscript.org/cscript.pdf
Cscript is designed to be easy to OCR, easy to read and write, and have several layers of compression to allow
for spatially dense writing.
Escript Electronic script for Low-res pixel display Script : http://dscript.org/escript.pdf
Escript is optimized for both handwriting and low resolution pixel display
Chemical Calligraphy Basics : http://dscript.org/chem.pdf
Chemical Calligraphy Advanced / Artistic : http://dscript.org/chem2.pdf
Chemical calligraphy is a derivative of Dscript. It allows chemical structures to be drawn as symbols. The
basics pdf introduces the basic principles, and the advanced pdf demonstrates how to use it as an artistic and mnemonic
device to help when learning chemical structures and organic chemistry.
More Technology-Art and Constructed Scripts at http://www.dscript.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on work by Matthew DeBlock at http://dscript.org
[email protected]
