Ben Mitchell

I research and make fonts for Southeast Asian scripts! 🇪🇺 🏳️‍🌈 He/him

http://fontpad.co.uk

Last Notes

2026-05-06 15:27:10 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk Thank you, that's helpful!

2026-05-06 10:19:12 UTC

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Thanks to everyone for comments! I've updated things and fixed the fonts and layout, and made it a bit clearer what the aim of the document is.
https://fontpad.co.uk/Documents/GenericCombiningMarksInThaiScript.pdf

2026-05-05 20:49:31 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk Thank you, updated, and now with references

2026-05-05 17:37:45 UTC

Here we go, first draft documenting the use of generic combining marks with Thai script, and proposing that Thai glottal stop letter we saw a while ago for Nyah Kur language:
https://fontpad.co.uk/Documents/GenericCombiningMarksInThaiScript.pdf

2026-03-22 15:37:17 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk That's pretty much on the edge of my perception, but I see the logic. I might prefer to keep the z on the baseline and overshoot thin verticals sligtly? The optical effect would be less in a heavy weight where the longer horizontal base of the vertical stems would be more comparable to the longer horizontal base of the z. Wondering how many type designers bother with this one!

2026-03-22 09:26:10 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk Ooh a floating z, I've never come across that, doesn't it look too high after an n or u?

2026-03-21 22:57:09 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk Thos is about BlueFuzz, isn’t it? I’ll try to dig out my notes from Miguel 15 years ago :)

2026-03-08 23:25:59 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk oh wow. This deserves to go on a t-shirt 😅

2025-08-04 21:16:34 UTC

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@nprofile…unvw Especially unfortunately, this is true of the Noto fonts, where still some of the older ones were developed by non-native designers without due diligence.

2025-06-27 22:00:39 UTC

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@nprofile…3qzt I must have missed a step in your thinking. Ink pens are not sharp like a stylus, so I don't understand how a pen nib might tear a palm leaf. And are there manuscript cultures that used a pen nib on a palm leaf? Speaking for SEAsia it would be stylus on palm leaves or pen on paper.

2025-06-27 16:27:01 UTC

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@nprofile…mjt5 Agreed. My theory would be altogether not about tearing the leaf but about better control of the stylus and about the collection of ink in the scratches...

2025-06-27 15:42:11 UTC

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@nprofile…mjt5 @nprofile…cu2p Ha interesting. I mean in my experience as an untrained novice probably doing things all wrong, making any kind of smooth, even strokes was difficult. It was just a very scratchy and unforgiving substrate so I could see how bith opposite stories could be true to different people.

2025-06-27 14:53:24 UTC

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@nprofile…cu2p I’ve tried scratching shapes into palm leaves with a stylus a couple of times; the leaves were really rather tough and difficult to rip, though there may be different kinds of leaves used in different areas, or different treatments to the surface.

2025-06-27 14:41:29 UTC

So there's this often repeated claim that the South Indian and Southeast Asian scripts adopted rounded letterforms because of their heritage in palm leaf manuscripts and that straight strokes would rip the leaves. But in the spirit of critical thinking, has anyone traced where this idea came from, or is there any evidence for this claim? I'd like to propose a slightly different theory

2025-06-08 09:00:34 UTC

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@nprofile…2qv9 Those old Mac fonts are basically what got me into this. Venice 14 😍
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/646/914/077/513/151/original/d4469fb5b80adb43.jpg

2025-05-01 12:35:51 UTC

Anyone know why a DIST feature for Myanmar isn't being applied in MS Word on MacOS? Our feature uses GSUB not GPOS, could that be causing an issue?
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/432/602/341/584/727/original/60331f4873bc2daa.png

2025-04-07 10:24:24 UTC

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@nprofile…mjt5 Oh how fantastic. Did you register? It seems researchers have to be affiliated with an institution?

2025-04-06 20:19:33 UTC

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@nprofile…mjt5 That’s a nice analogy. I had run into the issue of outsiderness some months ago and hadn’t considered this angle. Now I’m thinking twice about whether to publish language proofing tools for minority languages of Burma for other outsiders and/or insiders to use. Maybe it depends on the kind of texts? Text from a public website vs traditional manuscripts are different kinds of artefacts.