[dlisboa]

> I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity.

Of course not: if it did we would be doing it that way everywhere. Typeface design has thousands of years of history, there's only a few major variations in latin types and we've tried them all. Descenders exist for a reason.

This type is pretty cool for what it is meant for, the retro aesthetics. Old school digital displays (like alarm clocks) don't have descenders so it fits pretty well.

[fkyoureadthedoc]

> Descenders exist for a reason.

Yeah but I wouldn't just assume it's because they are the optimal solution. Look at architectural handwriting, very clear, no descenders.

[latexr]

> Look at architectural handwriting, very clear, no descenders.

I just looked it up, and every example I see has descenders in the lowercase letters.

[fkyoureadthedoc]

technical drawings and notes are almost always all caps

[latexr]

It doesn’t really count as “no descenders” if you’re only using letters which don’t have any to begin with. And all caps is harder to read fluidly, so that also doesn’t support the point.

[fkyoureadthedoc]

Yes, they've specifically chosen to avoid ascenders/descenders for clarity and uniform spacing. I don't see how that's not relevant.

[latexr]

> I don't see how that's not relevant.

Because it’s apples to oranges.

Deciding “my typeface won’t have any lowercase letters” is not the same as “my typeface won’t have descenders”. Technically none of them has descenders, but the former compromises by reducing the amount of characters—which keeps every remaining letterform distinct at the expense of reading fluidity—while the latter compromises by distorting a good chunk of letters—making them ambiguous and harder to read.

I very much doubt architects decided “let’s write everything in all caps because that avoids descenders”.

And again, while looking it up I see no end of examples of technical writing with lowercase letters, and they all have descenders.

[dsr_]

Many styles of architectural handwriting use descenders in the lower case. (Many other styles forbid or disdain the lower case.)