danielyacob wrote:

>
> hrmm, seems yahoo found that mail after all, sorry about that...
>
> > Speaking of such, I was highly amused by the Ethiopic font modelled
> on
> > German blackletter that appeared in one of your Unicode conference
> slides.
> > Can you tell me from where this font is available? Thanks.
> >
>
> I'm dazzled by your memory! That typeface has come to be known as the
> "Yigezu Bisrat" typeface named after the artist who designed it. I
> believe in the 60s, possibly in the earlier 70s though. He's passed
> away though. His intention was indeed to apply western styles to
> Ethiopic script. There is no shortage of Ethiopic typefaces, the
> "Merkato" district in Addis Ababa is a typeface wonderland if you are
> ever there. Unfortunately there is a shortage of Ethiopian artists
> with the computers skills to bring the more exotic designs into
> electronic reality.
>
> The NCIC (National Computer and Information Center) in Ethiopia sells
> the typeface within Ethiopia as part of the Agafari series
> (http://www.telecom.net.et/~estc/NCIC/computer.htm). These are 8bit
> fonts using diacritics. They've granted me permission to redistribute
> the font in bitmap form. I've Unicodified it (reassembled the
> diacritical marks) in TrueType and it has sat on the back burner for a
> few years. I suspect they may no longer be actively maintaining the
> font, in which case I'll approach them about releasing the TT version
> for non-commercial use.

You'll find a few samples in *Schrift und Schriftlichkeit* p. 321, where
the reference is given as Uhlig 1980: 815; this refers either to Uhlig
1988, Äthiopische Paläographie, or to Uhlig 1990, Introduction to
Ethiopian Palaeography.

I'm sure Ethiopia and Eritrea desperately need a flood of
alien-aestheticked display faces!!
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...