Comments on: Moon type

Moon type

luckypozzo — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:12:30 -0800

Moon type, an embossed typeface invented by Englishman William Moon in the middle 1840s, seemed to have won the fight to bring reading to the blind. Online Moon type generator here. It was based on simplified Roman text, was easy to use by all, and once enjoyed the status as the most popular embossed typeface in the world (failed night writing system withstanding). Until Louis Braille developed his system, that is.

By: TwelveTwo

TwelveTwo — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:16:48 -0800

Reminds me of the alphabets from Commander Keen.

By: digaman

digaman — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:26:48 -0800

How funny, lucky -- I nearly made an FPP about this myself last week. Good work.

By: parki

parki — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:33:39 -0800

"The Moon alphabet is easier to learn than Braille, particularly for people who loose their sight in later life." Loose? LOSE. Jesus wept.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 15:01:25 -0800

Jesus weeps over spelling errors? He has WAY too much time on his hands...

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 15:32:24 -0800

It is spelled that way by "Omniglot a guide to written language". Some guide. Interesting topic all the same. Too bad Omniglot is a bunch of loosers.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 16:35:23 -0800

Fascinating post, luckypozzo.

By: spinifex23

spinifex23 — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 17:22:28 -0800

Moon looks similar to syllabic Ojibwe and Inuktitut. Wonder if they're related, alphabet-developmentwise.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 18:09:08 -0800

Interesting that one reason Braille is better is because you can write it with just a pointy stick, while this system requires a printing press.

By: eriko

eriko — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 18:43:09 -0800

Jesus weeps over spelling errors? He has WAY too much time on his hands... He's just hanging around.

By: TwelveTwo

TwelveTwo — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 18:46:36 -0800

That Jesus, always weeping.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 18:47:04 -0800

He's just hanging around. Arching his back and howling at the moon every time George W. invokes his name.

By: Miko

Miko — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:36:19 -0800

Since my last name is Moon, I'm kind of extra excited about this.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 20:16:10 -0800

Interesting that one reason Braille is better is because you can write it with just a pointy stick, while this system requires a printing press. Or a typewriter.

By: melissa may

melissa may — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 21:38:26 -0800

It's hard to believe that I've never heard of any of this -- including the fascinating bit about night writing, a beautiful phrase. Now I'm wondering how blind people fared with reading prior to the mid-19th century. Is it known whether anyone else attempted this before Moon did? Your third link would suggest so, but it honestly surprises me that given the number of brilliant and ambitious printers in 16th century Europe no one else even made the effort. I suppose it shouldn't. Anyway, thanks for the very interesting post. It's exactly the sort of thing I always hope to find here.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 22:02:50 -0800

Cool post. I never heard of this. It does seem like an interesting alternative. Thanks, luckypozzo.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 22:03:41 -0800

Oh yeah, but: When you're writing about something as precise as the preferability of one form of communication over another, you really want to avoid utter bonehead spelling errors.

By: Jon Mitchell

Jon Mitchell — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 22:15:55 -0800

Nice! I looked for a moon truetype, but the links to the one at the RNIB seem to be down, and i apparently haven't eaten enough gofu of late. Can anyone else track one down? I have a strange urge to try programming in Moon for a week or two...

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 23:04:02 -0800

Or a typewriter. A dot matrix printer can do either. 24 pins should be sufficient to produce the shapes of the moon type, and it doesn't seem like a very difficult engineering feat to build one that can emboss, in the very unlikely event that it hasn't long since been done.

By: luckypozzo

luckypozzo — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 23:25:14 -0800

I can't locate any Moon type fonts. Check this web site for tons of Braille fonts.

By: flug

flug — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 23:50:03 -0800

Interesting that one reason Braille is better is because you can write it with just a pointy stick, while this system requires a printing press. -- Or a typewriter. -- One of the big advantages of Braille is it can be written with a stylus--a simple, small, cheap item that's basically the Braille equivalent of a ball-point pen. You can carry it around with you all the time and do things like take notes in class or make a shopping list. Writing Braille with a slate and stylus compares to writing print with a pen and pencil. The stylus is used to push dots down through the paper, while the slate serves as a guide. The Braille slate can be made of metal or plastic and is hinged so that there is a guide under the paper and on top of it. . . . The speed of writing Braille with the slate and stylus is about the same as the speed of writing print with pen or pencil. (NFB web site.) Incidentally, New York Point is another system that competed with Braille. The New York Institute for Special Education has a fascinating article about the "War of the Dots", in which advocates for the Braille system and for New York Point duked it out (sometimes quite literally) for supremacy in America.

By: alasdair

alasdair — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 05:49:48 -0800

One potential advantage for Moon is that it tends to have large characters, which is useful for the majority of blind people since they have become blind because of age-related problems and have limited tactile acuity. This is a disadvantage as well, of course, in that Moon materials are even bulkier and more expensive than Braille materials.