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 or character. Allography, from the Greek for "other writing" has several meanings which all relate to how Words and Sounds are written down In Typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in written language. For other uses see Character. In Computer and machine-based Telecommunications terminology a character is a unit of Glyphs may also be ligatures, that is, compound characters, or diacritics. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation

Etymology

The term has been used in English since 1727, borrowed from glyphe in use by French antiquaries (since 1701), from Greek γλυφη "a carving," from γλύφειν "to hollow out, engrave, carve" (cognate to Latin glubere "to peel" and English cleave). Year 1727 ( MDCCXXVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

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. Egyptian hieroglyphs (ˈhaɪərəʊɡlɪf from Greek grc-Grek ἱερογλύφος " sacred carving " also hieroglyphic = grc-Grek

But "glyph" first came to widespread European attention with the engravings and in lithographs from Frederick Catherwood's drawings of undeciphered glyphs of the Maya civilization in the early 1840s. Frederick Catherwood ( February 27, 1799 – September 27, 1854) was an English Artist and Architect The Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican Civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the Pre-Columbian Americas Year 1840 ( MDCCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year

Archaeology

Maya glyph for Day 10 of the tzolkin calendar. The Maya script, also known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently Tzolk'in (in the revised Guatemala Mayan languages Academy Orthography which is now preferred formerly and commonly tzolkin) is the name bestowed by

In archaeology, a glyph is a carved or inscribed symbol. It may be a pictogram or ideogram, or part of a writing system such as a syllable or logogram. A pictogram ( also spelled pictogramme) or pictograph is a Symbol representing a Concept, object, activity place or event An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek idea "idea" + grafo "to write" is a Graphic symbol that represents an Idea A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate Syllables which make up Words A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language

Typography

Various glyphs representing the character a (allographs of a) in the Zapfino typeface. Zapfino is a calligraphic Typeface designed for Linotype by renowned Typeface designer Hermann Zapf in 1998

In typography, a glyph is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of a grapheme, or sometimes several graphemes in combination (a composed glyph), or a part of a grapheme. Typography is the art and techniques of arranging type, Type design, and modifying type Glyphs Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety In Typography, a typeface is a set of one or more Fonts designed with stylistic unity each comprising a coordinated set of Glyphs A typeface usually comprises In Typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in written language. In computing as well as typography, the term character refers to a grapheme or grapheme-like unit of text, as found in natural language writing systems (scripts). Computing is usually defined like the activity of using and developing Computer technology Computer hardware and software. For other uses see Character. In Computer and machine-based Telecommunications terminology a character is a unit of In the Philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is a Language that is spoken or written in phonemic-alphabetic or phonemically-related A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. It may be a letter, a numeral, a punctuation mark, or a pictographic or decorative symbol such as dingbats. A dingbat is an ornament or spacer used in Typesetting, sometimes more formally known as a "printer's ornament" A character or grapheme is an abstract unit of text, whereas a glyph is a graphical unit. Graphics (from Greek grc [[wiktγραφικός γραφικός]] see -graphy) are Visual presentations on some surface such as a wall

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. Conversely, some typewriters require the use of multiple glyphs to depict a single character (for example, two hyphens in place of an em-dash, or an overstruck apostrophe and period in place of an exclamation mark). A typewriter is a mechanical or Electromechanical device with a set of "keys" that when pressed cause characters to be printed on a medium A hyphen ( -) is a Punctuation mark It is used for both Words to join and to separate Syllables It is often confused with the dashes A dash is a Punctuation mark It is longer than a Hyphen and is used differently A full stop or period (sometimes stop, full point, decimal point, or dot) is the Punctuation mark commonly placed at the

Most typographic glyphs originate from the characters of a typeface. In Typography, a typeface is a set of one or more Fonts designed with stylistic unity each comprising a coordinated set of Glyphs A typeface usually comprises 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, the term glyph is used for a non-character, i. Graphonomics is the interdisciplinary field directed towards thescientific analysis of the Handwriting process and the handwritten product 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. For more details goto this page

See also

• Allograph
• Character (computing)
• Character encoding
• Punchcutting
• Typeface
• Hieroglyph