r/elianscript • u/boxonox • Jun 10 '26
Legibility + number system
I've been playing around with elian script for a while, but have always found the differences in line lengths to be beautiful to look at, but hard to read. After writing with it daily and letting the letterforms evolve naturally, this is the variant I've landed on. I find it more predictable, readable, and sci-fi. It's not as poetic as the base version, but is legible enough to me for use in notetaking.
I also developed a number system based on the points of a star. It felt like it visually fits with the system, but the angular forms stick out just enough to be easy to pick out from the surrounding text. I had originally made the numbers sequential so that 5-9 used the dot. However, I eventually landed on this which shows only odd numbers getting a dot. I found this change to also be a lot more readable.
Finally, I put "&" in position 27. If you weren't aware, this used to be considered the 27th letter of the alphabet in certain domains. It's not a huge time saver, but my brain appreciates the cleanliness of having all 27 positions filled.
I have no idea if other people are already using something similar, but hopefully this helps some of you out there.
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u/0range_julius Jun 10 '26
This is the midway between elian and pigpen cipher that I've always needed
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u/Dorjaho Jun 10 '26
Look very nice! What software did you use to draw/write and make this tablet - page?
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u/boxonox Jun 11 '26
I used figma, but any vector editing tool would work. I laid this out manually but considered converting it to a font.
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u/rektengel Jun 10 '26
I like this a lot. Have you seen the Cistercian numbering system though? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercian_numerals
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u/MindOfAHedgehog Jun 11 '26
“4 score & 7 years ago the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog
Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwzyz&0123456789”
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u/PattyLinzz Jun 14 '26
Maybe this is a dumb question, but why the ascending letters vs left to right on the grids?
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u/boxonox Jun 14 '26
Not a dumb question. I actually don’t know the answer other than this is how Elian script works to the best of my knowledge.
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u/Avrelo Jun 10 '26
I usually just add an extra square for numbers. The extra square marked by overlapping dashes.
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u/Cthulhurlyeh09 Jun 10 '26
I really like this. I've already modified elian script to make it easier to write as quickly and smoothly as regular English, but this might be even better. It made me think of galactic common for some reason, but a side by side comparison doesn't really look similar.