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glyph

  (glĭf) pronunciation
n.
  1. Architecture. A vertical groove, especially in a Doric column or frieze.
  2. A symbolic figure that is usually engraved or incised.
  3. A symbol, such as a stylized figure or arrow on a public sign, that imparts information nonverbally.

[Greek gluphē, carving, from gluphein, to carve.]

glyphic glyph'ic adj.
 
 

A displayed or printed image. In typography, a glyph may be a single letter, an accent mark or a ligature. See grapheme.



 


1. A V-shaped, vertically oriented groove used as an ornament in the Classical Revival style and its derivatives; usually found on a Doric frieze, as in triglyph.
2. A sculptured pictograph.


 

[De]

A carved figure, character, or picture, incised, painted, or in relief. The system of picture writing is known as hieroglyphics.

 
Wikipedia: glyph
variant glyphs representing the character a (allographs of a) in the Zapfino typeface.
Enlarge
variant glyphs representing the character a (allographs of a) in the Zapfino typeface.

In typography, a glyph is the shape given in a particular typeface to a specific grapheme or symbol.

The term for the abstract entity represented by a glyph is character: a typographical character may be a grapheme (an element of a writing system), but also a numeral, a punctuation mark, or a pictorial or decorative symbol (such as dingbats, or Unicode's "Miscellaneous Symbols").

Two or more glyphs representing the same grapheme, either interchangeably or context-dependent, are called allographs.

In graphonomics, the term glyph is used for a non-character, i.e: either a sub-character or multi-character pattern.

Etymology

The term has been used in English since 1727, borrowed from glyphe in use by French antiquaries (since 1701), from Greek γλυφη "a carving," from γλύφειν "to hollow out, engrave, carve" (cognate to Latin glubere "to peel" and English cleave).

Compare the carved and incised "sacred glyphs" hieroglyphs, which have had a longer history in English dating from the first Elizabethan translation of Plutarch, who adopted "hieroglyphic" as a Latin adjective.

But "glyph" first came to widespread European attention with the engravings and in lithographs from Frederick Catherwood's drawings of undeciphered glyphs of the Maya civilization in the early 1840s.

Typography

In typography, a glyph is a particular graphical representation of a grapheme, or sometimes several graphemes in combination (a composed glyph), or only a part of a grapheme. In computing as well as typography, the term character refers to a grapheme or grapheme-like unit of text, as found in natural language writing systems (scripts). A character or grapheme is a unit of text, whereas a glyph is a graphical unit.

For example, the sequence ffi contains three characters, but can be represented by one glyph, the three characters being combined into a single unit known as a ligature. Conversely, some typewriters require the use of multiple glyphs to depict a single character (for example, two hyphens in place of an em-dash, or an overstruck apostrophe and period in place of an exclamation mark).

Most typographic glyphs originate from the characters of a typeface. In a typeface each character typically corresponds to a single glyph, but there are exceptions, such as a font used for a language with a large alphabet or complex writing system, where one character may correspond to several glyphs, or several characters to one glyph.

Other uses

  • In the Appaloosa Interactive video games Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time, a "glyph" is one of several different types of crystalline objects which are usually larger than the protagonist, Ecco. Glyphs may block routes, give a "password" for passing routes blocked by other glyphs, restore Ecco's energy, give hints, or save the game in certain levels.
  • In Heroscape, glyphs are magic objects on the ground that grant special powers.
  • In Guild Wars a glyph is an Elementalist only skill that usually help with energy management.
  • In the MMORPG MapleStory there's a quest item called "Hyper Glyph".

See also


 
Translations: Translations for: Glyph

Dansk (Danish)
n. - glyf, indhugget eller udskåret tegn, lodret fure

Nederlands (Dutch)
reliëffiguur, teken, groef

Français (French)
n. - (Art) glyphe

Deutsch (German)
n. - eingemeißeltes Bild- oder Buchstabenzeichen, eingeschnitzte oder erhabene Figur, Rille, Furche

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (αρχιτ.) γλυφή

Italiano (Italian)
glifo, segno, scanalatura

Português (Portuguese)
n. - hieróglifo (m)

Русский (Russian)
глиф, рельефно вырезанная фигура, символический знак

Español (Spanish)
n. - marca, señal, ranura, surco

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - räffla

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
纵的沟纹, 竖沟浮雕, 象形文字字形, 字的轮廓

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 縱的溝紋, 豎溝浮雕, 象形文字字形, 字的輪廓

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 상형 문자, (건축물의) 세로 문향

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 縦溝, 絵文字

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) صورة رمزيه منقوشه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮גילוף דמות, פסל, גליף (קישוט של גילוף), כתב-תמונה, תגליף, סמל ציורי למילה או משפט, סמל או כתובת קדושים‬


 
 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. THIS COPYRIGHTED DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.
All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.
© 1981-2008 Computer Language Company Inc.  All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Glyph" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

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