In reply to Defining notan’s edge:
>What we don’t know for sure, is if writing with the hand-held tool optimally calibrates stress.
I think when you say "hand-held tool" that is too wide. There are a lot of different tools. For example the pointed Chinese brush works a lot differently from the pen. But interestingly they do the similar sorts of thing with thick and thin, even color, and so on. The thing is, the mind is guiding the tool, and trying to make it work for the eye.
If the question is whether the broad-pen drawn Carolingian miniscule optimally calibrates stress, I would say that evidence of history is that it handles stress very well for the eye, but not ideally. The Jenson, Griffo, Garamond line of type makers systematically changed the stress of the letters, and I think made them more readable. And publishers and readers certainly followed. For example, the top left to bottom right diagonals are lighter than they would be pen drawn. There's a lot of other subtle modulation that's different also, but the diagonal thing will do for a start.
