linja pona
linja pona
 | |
| Supported characters | ku suli, plus 3 ku lili |
|---|---|
| Style | Uniform line weight |
| Writing system | sitelen pona |
| Author | jan Same, David A. Roberts |
| License | OFL |
| Features |    |
linja pona (lit. 'simple line') is a uniform line weight sitelen pona typeface created by jan Same and expanded on by David A. Roberts, with several major versions released from 2016 to 2021. It was the first font to include glyphs beyond the characters featured in lipu pu.
History[edit | edit source]
In December 2016, jan Same announced the release of linja pona, created with the help of the sitelen pona font by jan Wesi. To write compound glyphs, the space between the two words had to be omitted (e.g. tokipona for toki-pona). To use cartouches, square brackets and underscores before each glyph had to be used (e.g. [_kasi_alasa_nasin_awen_telo_a] for one spelling of Kanata).[1][2]
On 18 March 2017, jan Same released linja pona version 2. Several new compound glyphs were introduced as well as a new system of writing them—now to write a compound, a hyphen has to be put between the two words (e.g. toki-pona for toki-pona). The monsuta glyph was slightly modified and new ways of typing a, e, and o were introduced.[3][4]
On 11 April 2017, jan Same released linja pona version 3.[5]
On 12 January 2019, jan Tepu created linja pona version 4, wanting to merge his updates with jan Same's version 3. He "updated the font to use OpenType features to dynamically compose compound glyphs, rather than relying on including precomposed glyphs in the font. As a result, this version allows over 6,000 new compound glyphs".[6][7][8]
Design[edit | edit source]
linja pona's goal is to be "a standard font that [is] simple and that could be read easily at different sizes"[9]—"the Arial of sitelen pona"[10]. However, according to lipamanka in 2024, linja pona has come to be "considered a very stylized font".[11] It is visually similar to geometric sans-serif fonts, such as Century Gothic.
linja pona heavily diverges from the proportions in pu. It alters many glyphs to better fill the square bounding box and feature larger counters. For example, the loops in the pronoun and lape glyphs take up most of the space; the glyph for palisa is also quite wide. This may have been intended to ease legibility, to facilitate scaled glyphs, or to create a smoother type color. To some speakers,[who?] these changes actually make glyphs harder to recognize and distinguish.[citation needed]
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mi in linja pona -
sina in linja pona -
ona in linja pona -
lape in linja pona -
palisa in linja pona
Influence[edit | edit source]
linja pona helped to create and popularize some or all of the non-pu glyphs included, such as that of kijetesantakalu. Other examples include kin, kipisi, leko, monsuta, namako, oko, and tonsi, as well as rarer words, such as apeja and pake.[12][13] For words whose main glyphs have changed since their addition to linja pona, such as epiku, kokosila, and lanpan (represented in linja pona as lanpan[a]), it has taken concerted effort to establish the competing design.
linja pona has influenced other sitelen pona fonts in glyph design and feature set. Most notably, linja sike used the linja pona glyphs as a base. The hyphen and bracket rules in linja pona became the basis of the ASCII transcription system, a feature that various later fonts would adopt and elaborate on—such as replacing the hyphen with other operators (such as +, ^, *) to force specific glyph combination strategies, and replacing the use of manual pre-word underscores in cartouches and extended glyphs with OpenType features.
Individual designs for glyphs such as jaki, jo, and seme are recognizable and have been influential in font design. The glyph for jo is notably narrow in jan Sonja's handwriting in lipu pu, while in linja pona and many fonts thereafter, it has circular proportions or wider, and a long horizontal bar that extends beyond the center. The glyph for seme has a wide, exaggerated curve that many fonts have copied, despite it having a normal, narrow question mark shape in pu, which is more controversial as it has caused confusion around question marks in sitelen pona.
-
jaki in linja pona -
jo in linja pona -
seme in linja pona
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ This version of lanpan was created in the linja sike font as a mistake and msunderstanding of the intended design.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ James Flear. (3 December 2016). "toki!". Facebook. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
- ↑ jan Same [janSame]. (3 December 2016). "LINJA PONA FONT". Imgur. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/groups/sitelen/permalink/1327034427350939/
- ↑ http://musilili.net/linja-pona/
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/groups/sitelen/permalink/1351269838260731/
- ↑ https://github.com/janSame/linja-pona/pull/7
- ↑ https://github.com/davidar/linja-pona
- ↑ https://davidar.github.io/linja-pona/nimi
- ↑ "linja pona | musi lili" (in Toki Pona). musi lili. Retrieved 22 December 2023. "With linja pona, I wanted to create a standard font that was simple and that could be read easily at different sizes.".
- ↑ jan Same [u/jan-Same]. (20 May 2020). "linja pona font update". r/tokipona. Reddit. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
Thank you! With linja pona, I tried to make the Arial of sitelen pona.
An uniform simple design that could be easily read whatever the size. - ↑ lipamanka. (6 March 2024). Message in the
#resource listthread in#lipu. ma pona pi toki pona. Discord. Retrieved 1 May 2024. - ↑ "linjapona3-5OTF.ttf". Google Drive. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
- ↑ jan Same. (13 July 2021). "sitelen nimi ale pi linja-pona nanpa tu-wan.luka wan" [All linja pona 3.6 word glyphs] (in Toki Pona). Wayback Machine. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
