Digital Character Design of Diacritical Dcroat Mark

Abstract

This article aims at contributing to the quantitative and qualitative discussion on the design of modern fonts by analyzing the Croatian and Vietnamese dcroat sign representing a unique case of typographic solution. The main issue is the problem of designing letters that are composed of a body and a diacritical mark and that are not present in other Latin scripts. The goal of a letter design is recognition, and diacritical marks must assume eigenvalue of the letterform from the font-family concerned. The following measurements of the dcroat character were conducted: thickness, vertical and horizontal positioning. In order to enable proper diacritical design and achieve legibility, most common practices were established by measuring geometry in different fonts and font-families.