Friday, January 25, 2019

Getting a logo or URL for a poster the right distance of letters.


Imagine you were writing the German word PFEFFERMINZ. On a cardboard, with a pen or pencil, by hand.

You start out, at approriate distance P and Z and take an E right between them - but why?

Because the second E in PFEFFERMINZ is right between P and Z (this is also the reason why Eduard Haas III gave PEZ candy its name, as abbreviation of PFEFFERMINTZ).

Shall we check?

P P
F (1)
E (2)
F (3)
F (4)
E E
R (1)
M (2)
I (3)
N (4)
Z Z

Right. Four letters between P and E, four between E and Z.

Next two letters (see you later, PEZ, perhaps), or in this case four letters ... why four, why not two? With an uneven number of intervening letters, it would logically be two, the mid letter between P and E, the mid letter between E and Z. But with an even number of intervening letters, there are two mid letters in each stretch.

P P
F (1)
E E
F F
F (1)
E E
R (1)
M (2)
I (3)
N (4)
Z Z
 P P
F (1)
E E
F F
F (1)
E E
R (1)
M M
I I
N (1)
Z Z


As you can see, some are already next to each other, so, now we have four stretches with one intervening letter each. Once they are all filled in, the word is fully written out:

P P
F F
E E
F F
F (1)
E E
R (1)
M M
I I
N (1)
Z Z
 P P
F F
E E
F F
F F
E E
R (1)
M M
I I
N (1)
Z Z
 P P
F F
E E
F F
F F
E E
R R
M M
I I
N (1)
Z Z
 P P
F F
E E
F F
F F
E E
R R
M M
I I
N N
Z Z


Now, PFEFFERMINTZ has exactly 11 letters. This means there is a mid letter and this means the two new stretches of unwritten letters will be four letter spaces long, with two mid letters instead.

Anything in a series of 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25 (1+4n) will have uneven new stretches too, so you go for two mid letters on of each stretch in the second stage as for the one mid letter in the whole stretch first step. If you think of it, this means, you can also divide words with two thirds letters, if there are stretches (original and perhaps subsequent) that arrive in words with 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25 (1+3n) letters.

ROBBERS has a total of seven (so is HTTP:// btw) ...

R R
O (1)
B (2)
B (3)
E (4)
R (5)
S S
 R R
O (1)
B B
B (1)
E (2)
R (3)
S S
 R R
O (1)
B B
B (1)
E E
R (1)
S S
R R
O O
B B
B (1)
E E
R (1)
S S
 R R
O O
B B
B B
E E
R (1)
S S
 R R
O O
B B
B B
E E
R R
S S


I could just as well have gone from two ends to middle B. The main thing is, you start at end points, you continue to mid point or mid points, you go on from there. I am not going to detail each case for you.

Here is an example with more than one line, and I did longest, middle line first:

     HTTP://     | (7, + 5 before, + 5 after)
L-O-ANTIMODERNISM| (17)
  .BLOGSPOT.COM  | (13, + 2 before, + 2 after)


If it looks uneven, it is because I (in ANTIMODERNISM) and M (in COM) are superposed on equal space, and computer printed letters don't quite do that. If you do it by hand, as this is meant for, you can make the I slightly slanted to be a bit broader, the M slightly narrower or the vertical lineup slightly less even, so the horizontal distances get more even. By the way, here is the link to Latest on Antimodernism which is what the URL is URL to. It's a blog where I put widgets with latest five posts on each of the blogs that are featured in widgets on it.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Conversion of St. Paul
25.I.2019

Updated with bold letters for the ones being added to a layout./HGL

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