If you do lettering by hand, S has a bit of reputation. It's hard to get right. Small mistakes stand out even to an untrained eye. However, once you do get it (subjectively) right, it's an extremely beautiful letter. This is even more true in hands like cancellaresca corsiva (the so called "italic font") where the letters are somewhat smooth flowing rather than built with rigid lines. More interestingly, because of all these parameters, you can play a lot with the letter especially if you want to do it as a drop cap or ornament it. As an example, making the lower bowl bigger as the the above comment invites gives the letter some personality.
replyThis is all fine. What fascinates me with Knuth's work is how he applies mathematical rigour to concepts like these which are generally considered "artistic" and subjective. It underlines how mathematical ideas of symmetry etc. play a role in making the world we live in beautiful.
As Knuth points out, applying math to art is applying artistic sense to a continuum of forms all at once.
replyThat's a nice quote.
replyI remember seeing an animated documentary as a child called "Donald in Mathmagic Land" which ends with a quote attributed to Galileo.
> Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe
+1 for "S has a bit of reputation"
replyHow does 's' compare to other languages' letters - e.g. arabic or chinese - in terms of difficulty?
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