In reply to What makes Legato so unique?:
Maybe I'm playing the devil's advocate here, but didn't Bloemsma really just recreate the effect of a broad-nib pen, but without the tool? I really love Legato but I think we're all focusing on the wrong part here. I think the excellency of the design lies in Bloemsma's skill and willingness to make the letters do what they need to and not what practice dictates.* The only thing the slanting of the outer- and inner-forms did was allow him to think about the letters more abstractly, not escape the relation and unbreakable link of the outer- and inner-shape, and thus the "stroke".
There seems to be a lot of argument between "the stroke" and "form, counter-form" where somehow people think one is not linked to the other. These two "schools of thought" should not be considered rules to be followed, but a means of categorizing thoughts. When I work, I call strokes strokes, when the context dictates, and counters counters. When one means of categorization is used over the other (or with) all depends on what one is working on. You can't unlink strokes or counters from the notion of the letter. They are both in-grained.
If we have to discuss the second paragraph further, we might want to find or start a more appropriate thread.
* look at the t and r: the t slants slightly forward while the r actually backslants
