Conceptual Caligraphy

[eilu]

This artist has made "an Alternative Writing System Whose Properties Combine the Linearity of Spelling with the Free-Form Nature of Drawing." Not very practical for everyday use, but the work is really fluid, more like Arabic/Thai/Hebrew writing or Tolkien's elvish script. He also details the conceptualization and creation of the system: http://www.ccelian.com/ElianScriptFull.html

 

There's also a chromatic alphabet (letters represented by colours) as well as some artwork done in it

 

Quite interesting reads for anyone into calligraphy and writing as an art form.

[FountainPenAddict]

Ellian script looks amazing. I would like to adopt it as a personal writing script. Its like a handwritten encryption (excuse my nerdy jokes)

[Clydesdave]

Wow! I thought someday I would sit down and translate the writting used in Myst. *sigh* I think I'll stick to hammering iron.

[Renzhe]

My primary school teachers introduced me to this, as well as some other (extremely) simple encryption methods. It looks like that site has turned it into something funky.

 

I wonder what it would look like if syllables were arranged in squares.

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...Sejong style! LOL

 

http://i33.tinypic.com/bhzhhe.jpg

Edited October 12, 2008 by Renzhe

[Renzhe]

Am I the only one who thinks this is hilarious?

http://i35.tinypic.com/2lvbj4l.png

[rattus31]

Am I the only one who thinks this is hilarious?

http://i35.tinypic.com/2lvbj4l.png

 

Take off every ZIG! You know what you doing! Move Zig! For great justice!

 

Never gets old...to me.

[SquelchB]

Jeez, it looks beautiful...

[wykpenguin]

Looks like Chinese. Somewhat similar to what the artists/calligrapher Zui Bing does.

 

http://images.google.com/images?hl=zh-TW&a...sa=N&tab=wi

[AJP]

I think it is pretty cool, turning simple encryption into a fluid and beautiful writing style most folks would never identify. It has great flow and balance.

[Habibi18]

I make lots of these too! I absolutely love the one that Renzhe made.

 

Renzhe could you PM me the key to it? I wanna experiment with it. I love it! Do you have any other ones? It kicks ass.

 

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x180/Wapo_Gipo_Frogs88/th_sau22.jpg.gif

[Pink Ink]

Am I the only one who thinks this is hilarious?

http://i35.tinypic.com/2lvbj4l.png

I will decrypt this later when I stop feeling guilty about procrastinating on physics homework.

 

But I like! I like how you disguised the code to make it look like a character-based language — who would guess that it’s in english? You could fool a lot of people with that.

[Renzhe]

Someone asked me to explain the script a bit more. The following image should explain everything. Thinking about it further, I think that more common letters should be simpler than infrequent letters. It becomes easier to write once one rearranges the letters. In English, the letters in order of frequency are etaoinshrdlcumwfgypbvkjxqz (I know I miss a letter in the list at the top but the grids are correct.).

I find this method of encryption amusing, because one can come up with some funny-looking syllables.

http://i33.tinypic.com/35jxymu.png

Edited December 8, 2008 by Renzhe

[Habibi18]

You know that this is exactly like the pig pen/masonic ciphers? But instead of using dashes and the different writing directions and placement of characters you use dots and it's written from left to right in horizontal lines.

 

Plus they're many versions. I have some examples ( thankfully ) that I had scanned eons ago before my hard drive crashed and the chaos began. Here you go:

 

Pig Pen Cipher Version #1

Pig Pen Cipher Version #2

 

There's another version but I don't have it scanned and I don't know when I'll have my scanner hooked up. It's annoying I know. But that's what I wanted to show you if you weren't familiar with them. And there's also a cursive version that I came up with for quicker writing.

 

But it's not on my Flickr or Photobucket unfortunately. *Slaps forehead* In case you're wondering "Serali" is another one of my Usernames on another forum and Strange Magic is one of my buddies and boingies are of my creation and plan to take over the world! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

I'm serious. ^^

 

P.S What's the empty box in the key used for?

 

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x180/Wapo_Gipo_Frogs88/th_sau22.jpg.gif This is a boingy.

[fastercat]

That is so cool looking! It does seem very pig pen’ish. I’ll have to look at it closer. I like the Chromatic alphabet; you could use different inks for each letter and draw random objects with them. It would be another simple encryption system somewhat like a Baconian Cipher.

 

 

[unnarrator]

Guys, thanks for giving a name to something I did for hours as a kid, but never knew the name of until now! I'm sure my mom would have been even less pleased with my time-wasting activities had she known I was practicing writing in something called "pig pen."

[Habibi18]

Guys, thanks for giving a name to something I did for hours as a kid, but never knew the name of until now! I'm sure my mom would have been even less pleased with my time-wasting activities had she known I was practicing writing in something called "pig pen."

 

 

I don't blame you either although the person who would be blaming me would be my teacher not my mom. ^_^ I also based a script on the Elian cipher and made a "cursive" version for quicker writing.

 

I have alot of "self made" ciphers. Oh what's a Baconian cipher? I've never heard of it.

 

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x180/Wapo_Gipo_Frogs88/th_sau22.jpg.gif

[fastercat]

I have alot of "self made" ciphers. Oh what's a Baconian cipher? I've never heard of it.

 

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x180/Wapo_Gipo_Frogs88/th_sau22.jpg.gif

A Baconian cipher is a way to hide a message in another message, Stegagnography. It is a cipher composed of 2 different 'changes' in groups of 5 to make each letter, i/j are the same letter. The changes can be a shift in typeface, the beginning of a word being a-m vs n-z, a vowel in position 2 of a word vs consonant etc. When I first saw the chromatic alphabet reference I thought that is how it was made, but it turns out it isn't. It really is an odd 'cipher' in that it is just a rainbow of color with each color used to signify each letter. However, since the colors are always in the same order you have to anagram the string to get the real word. I had more in mind of drawing diagrams in each color to be the 'changes' or even to use multiple inks. You could also use two slightly different color variations to be the A/B of the cipher changes. Wikipedia has a good introduction to it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon's_cipher

 

If you are interested in 'hand ciphers' a good start is the American Cryptogram Association, at www.cryptogram.org. They publish a newsletter that contains a whole bunch of different types of ciphers to decypher. I'm a member. They range from simple substitution, like cryptograms in the paper and the examples provide in this thread, to much more complicated ones. All can be done by hand but are of varying degrees of hardness. They even have some substitutions in foreign languages if that is your cup of tea. It would make a nice addition to a postcard/letter swap. Maybe with some Noodlers Blue Ghost to make it even more secret!

 

Ok, enough of the bunny trail.

 

[Habibi18]

One word: AWESOME!

 

I'm definitely going to check out the ACA!

 

Thank you!

 

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x180/Wapo_Gipo_Frogs88/th_sau22.jpg.gif

[Darteres]

You know that this is exactly like the pig pen/masonic ciphers? But instead of using dashes and the different writing directions and placement of characters you use dots and it's written from left to right in horizontal lines.

 

Plus they're many versions. I have some examples ( thankfully ) that I had scanned eons ago before my hard drive crashed and the chaos began. Here you go:

 

Pig Pen Cipher Version #1

Pig Pen Cipher Version #2

 

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x180/Wapo_Gipo_Frogs88/th_sau22.jpg.gif This is a boingy.

 

We used to use this in the boy scouts! Can't believe I had forgotten that, but it was just what I was thinking about when looking at the Elian Script. Amazing.

[Habibi18]

Exactly. I use for passing notes in class and my journals.

 

It's famous though and one of my favorites.

 

http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x180/Wapo_Gipo_Frogs88/th_sau22.jpg.gif