Problems of diacritic design
For Latin-script typefaces
The design of diacritics has cultural and linguistic dimensions, however it is mostly an exercise in problem-solving. This essay looks at the some of the difficulties of designing diacritics and how designers have approached solutions.
This was originally written as a short MA dissertation, and is necessarily brief. It does not attempt to address design issues for specific diacritics—other than possibly the grave and acute. It highlights some of the core issues that can influence design.
Download the PDF: Problems of diacritic design for Latin-script text faces
Since this essay was made public in 2002 there has been a surge of interest in diacritic design, and many people have pushed the research further, particularly regarding the design of specific diacritics. Here are a few resources that may be more helpful than the initial essay. They are mainly Latin-script-centric, however some of the issues mentioned in my introductory essay can be easily applied to many other scripts.
- The Diacritics project - mostly Central European, but also some Greek and Sanskrit transliteration
- The Insects project - excellent, thorough documentation on Central European diacritics. Highly recommended!
- Manual of diacritics - a rich set of case studies and diacritic makeovers
- Polish diacritics - how to
- Romanian diacritic marks
- On diacritics - good essay that covers some of the same ground as mine, but is a nice complement, and from an expert designer
For further information on specific diacritics, specified by Unicode, see:
