Version 1.10.0
September 16th, 2014
This Font Software is Copyright (c) 1974-2014
Center For Sutton Movement Writing, Inc.
Available under the Open Font License
The symbols in the International SignWriting Alphabet 2010 (ISWA 2010) were designed by SignWriting inventor, Valerie Sutton (sutton@signwriting.org).
The symbols were transformed by Stephen E Slevinski Jr (slevin@signpuddle.net).
SWAP uses a database for SVG images and API data.
Includes ISWA 2010 SVG Refinement, ISWA 2010 SVG Smooth, and ISWA 2010 SVG Angular: download , 7.5 MB zipped, 84 MB unzipped
Includes ISWA 2010 SVG Refinement: download , 2.1 MB zipped, 32 MB unzipped
Data files are text files with one symbol per line.
SVG Refinement Font 1.1 MB zipped, 24 MB unzipped
SVG Smooth Font 1.8 MB zipped, 19 MB unzipped
SVG Angular Font 1.4 MB zipped, 17 MB unzipped
Symbol sizes 92 KB zipped, 530 KB unzipped
The SignWriting symbols as described in the ISWA 2010 will be included in Unicode 8 released in 2015. Every symbol of the ISWA 2010 can be identified with 1, 2, or 3 Unicode characters on plane 1.
The Unicode 8 specification will not include the layout characters of SignWriting Text; therefore, it is impossible to properly name a sign with Unicode 8 alone. For the 2-dimensional structures and placement, either a lite ASCII markup can be used or the Unicode Private Use Area characters on plane 15 can be used.
Currently there is no font available for the Unicode 8 specification of the SignWriting symbols. Before the official specification is published, I hope we can complete this project. The data above is freely available for use. If you can donate your time, please dive into the project. If you know the right tools, please drop me a line. (slevin@signpuddle.net)
Review the SignWriting Font Test Page for more details and specifics.
| Resource | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ISWA 2010 SVG Glyphs with Unicode 8 names | 1.1 MB zipped, 24 MB unzipped | Text file with 37,811 lines, 1 per ISWA 2010 symbol. Each line starts with the Unicode 8 name, followed by a tab, followed by the SVG definition. |
| OpenType Feature File for Unicode 8 | 170 KB zipped, 1.2 MB unzipped | Text file with 37,813 lines, 2 lines to open and close the liga feature and 1 line per ISWA 2010 symbol. Each line starts with the Unicode 8 name and maps to the ISWA 2010 glyph name as the symbol key. |
Font development continues with FontForge. This section is incomplete and the font is unfinished. I will be adding resource files as I build. I will document commands that work with FontForge. I will list the completed fonts as they occur.
The ISWA 2010 contains 37,811 individual symbols. Every symbol is defined with a 2-color SVG. The primary color of a symbol is the line that shows the shape of the symbol. The secondary color of a symbol is the fill that is important when symbols overlap. When symbols overlap, the fill of the symbol on top should cover the line of the symbol underneath. The secondary color can be set to the background color to blend a sign image on the page.
For a 2-color font, there are 37,811 glyphs in the set.
For a 1-color font, there are 37,811 glyphs for the lines and an additional 25,429 glyphs for the fill.
Each symbol of the ISWA 2010 is available as a variety of SVG files named after the symbol key.
| Unified SVG, 2 Colors | Line SVG | Fill SVG, White | Fill SVG, Black | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISWA 2010 SVG Refinement | 37,811 files 18.3 MB zipped |
37,811 files 17 MB zipped |
25,429 files 9.3 MB zipped |
25,429 files 9.3 MB zipped |
| ISWA 2010 SVG Smooth | 37,811 files 17.2 MB zipped |
37,811 files 15.6 MB zipped |
25,429 files 9.3 MB zipped |
25,429 files 9.3 MB zipped |
| ISWA 2010 SVG Angular | 37,811 files 16.3 MB zipped |
37,811 files 14.9 MB zipped |
25,429 files 9 MB zipped |
25,429 files 9 MB zipped |
TrueType Outlines do not include color. For symbols that use both the line color and the fill color, 2 glyphs must be defined. Using FontForge, the SVG files above can be imported into a font.
OpenType Features are included to map the various names of the symbols to the appropriate glyphs.
| Resource | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OpenType Feature File for Unicode 8 | 170 KB zipped, 1.2 MB unzipped | Text file with 37,813 lines, 2 lines to open and close the liga feature and 1 line per ISWA 2010 symbol. Each line starts with the Unicode 8 name and maps to the ISWA 2010 glyph name as the symbol key. |
| OpenType Feature File for Unicode PUA | 180 KB zipped, 1.2 MB unzipped | Text file with 37,813 lines, 2 lines to open and close the liga feature and 1 line per ISWA 2010 symbol. Each line starts with the Unicode Private Use Area name and maps to the ISWA 2010 glyph name as the symbol key. |
| OpenType Feature File for ASCII symbol keys | 170 KB zipped, 1.1 MB unzipped | Text file with 37,813 lines, 2 lines to open and close the liga feature and 1 line per ISWA 2010 symbol. Each line starts with the symbol key characters and maps to the ISWA 2010 glyph name as the symbol key. |
After the initial fonts are available, TransType 4 will be used to combine and package the 2-color fonts and other font .
Available for review is a working prototype of a smart font technology that uses Graphite with TrueType outlines and OpenType features to fully support the 2-dimensional layout of individual signs.
Smart font development by Eduardo Trapani: iswa.ttf, 6.1MB Github Source
The TrueType Font works with Graphite
If Graphite is not already enabled in FireFox, you can follow these instructions to enable Graphite in the Firefox Browser.
After enabling Graphite in the Firefox Browser, view the test pages:
locally installed font example
Presented at the SignWriting Symposium 2014* on Day 2, time marker 25:55.
*Celebrating 40 years of writing with 40 presentations from 12 countries.
SWIS uses a database or filesystem for images in a variety of formats.
Currently running Wikimedia Labs and SignBank with Github source.
Includes png1: download , 3.6 MB zipped, 8.6 MB unzipped
Includes png1 and svg1: download , 5 MB zipped, 42 MB unzipped
Includes png1, png2, png3, png4, svg1, svg2, svg3, svg4, svg5, txt1: download , 29 MB zipped, 216 MB unzipped
Main ISWA 2010 Data about SymbolGroups, BaseSymbols, and Symbols: download
English language names for Categories, SymbolGroups, and BaseSymbols:
download
Valerie Sutton's original PNGS, single directory, file names by symbol ID: filesystem
Portable Network Graphic with black line, white fill, transparent background: filesystem or database
Portable Network Graphic with white line, black fill, transparent background: filesystem or database
Portable Network Graphic with black line, black fill, transparent background: filesystem or database
Portable Network Graphic with colorized line, white fill, transparent background: filesystem or database
Portable Bitmap for line: filesystem or database
Portable Bitmap for fill: filesystem or database.
Portable Bitmap for shadow: filesystem or database.
2 dimensional ASCII character grid: filesystem or database.
Individual Symbol Refinement by Adam Frost: filesystem or database or data file.
Polygon tracing with line and fill: filesystem or database.
Polygon tracing with shadow and fill: filesystem or database.
Smooth polygon tracing: filesystem or database or data file.
Angular polygon tracing: filesystem or database or data file.
Real life hand photos by Adam Frost:
filesystem.
Derivative fonts are conceptually compatible, but are not supported directly in SignPuddle or the SignWriting Icon Server.
These two fonts were imagined and created by Jonatha Duncan. An original encoding, each symbol was analyzed for repeating shapes or peices. Each type of peices was only encoded once. Each symbol can be constructed with the common peices using XLink with Cartesian coordinates in SVG. His work is available on his SignWriting Studio download page.
Here are the numbers he is reporting.
| Font | SQLite | Text | SQLite Percentage of SVG Refinement | Text Percentage of SVG Refinement | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| uncompressed (MB) | compressed (MB) | uncompressed (MB) | compressed (MB) | uncompressed (MB) | compressed (MB) | uncompressed (MB) | compressed (MB) | |
| ISWA 2010 SVG Refinement | 26.4 | 1.73 | 24 | 1.1 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| ISWA 2010 SVG Refinement Refactored | 9.73 | 1.63 | 13.1 | 1.63 | 37% | 94% | 55% | 148% |
| ISWA 2010 SVG Refinement Refactored Tiny | 6.93 | 1.53 | 10.2 | 1.25 | 26% | 88% | 43% | 114% |
Uses <DEF> and xlink: download archive
Uses <DEF> and xlink with smaller in memory footprint: download archive