Engineering Poetry - Part I
by Raspberry
Mathematics and Poetry are the utterance of the same power of imagination, only that in the one case it is addressed to the head, in the other, to the heart. ~~ Thomas Hill
Poetry is an art of engineering. Every word you use counts. Well, there are so many aspects to this fabulous engineering. To start with we shall see the importance of Legibility.
Legibility Engineering
Anything which is friendly to the human eye, is Legible.
So, what makes something friendly to our sensitive eyes ?
APPEARANCE
Yes, Appearance is the most important aspect. The better the appearance, the greater the intimacy in friendship
So, what really counts in this appearance ?
COLOR
Be it for the background or font, color matters a lot. Color is like the face of a woman. Yes, it is the first thing you see. You would want it to be prominent, appealing to the eye. Say, you have a dark background then writing on it with a light colored font is common sense. The same as when you have the fonts in dark color for a light colored background.
Dark blue or dark violet text written on a black background gives an impression that you would have preferred your words hidden rather than let them be viewed by the readers. The same is the case when text is written in light yellow or cream on a white background. When blue is written on a dark pink background, it reveals the writer's intention to hurt the reader’s eyes. Yes, it hurts and it is obvious.
Look at the blocks with alphabets above. Are they legible? Yes ! Consider the blocks as individual pages with typical color. It wont hurt much and they are reader friendly ?
It is simple, think a minute and choose your font color for the appropriate background. Then when you’ve done the selection, look at it again. Is it clear to you?
FONT
Luckily, not all of us are allowed to choose the font face. If allowed to, I wouldn't be surprised to see some strange figures instead of words from people using Wingdings font or something similar. However, people do miss out the criteria of upper case and lower case. There is a strict protocol, as to begin the sentence with an upper case with a series of characters in lower case. Do avoid the mixture of both cases and when you choose to mix them and present a poem, it loses its seriousness and earns a clumsy name. Some poets are also seen writing the entire context with upper case, whatever their intentions were it helps them in no way, as it appears to strain the reader and he will prefer not to read.
Fonts are like jewels you give to a woman. Be selective, choose what you feel might appeal the best
I hope this in some way helps you to understand what is Legibility engineering. There are other aspects like curves and slants, bold and italics. They are good enough not to spoil the presentation, however they may be over used. Except, avoid a long underline as this may again seem irritating and fail to serve the purpose, if you had aimed at highlighting. Take care to leave enough space, let the reader breathe when and where required.
I shall discuss the other aspects of Engineering Poetry in future articles. Have a lovely time until then.
Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. ~~ Plato, Ion
Mathematics and Poetry are the utterance of the same power of imagination, only that in the one case it is addressed to the head, in the other, to the heart.
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