In reply to MATD 2012:
No Ryan, I copied the text from the specimen PDF and pasted into an InDesign document.
John: I presume it is because you recognise that the normative shapes of these letters are strongly influenced by how they were written by Byzantine scribes, and such is the nature of those shapes that they look wrong if you apply a different ductus.
If by ductus we’re referring to the angle of a broad-nibbed pen, certainly I followed the conventional lambda and chi, however, not because of the scribes who started the convention, but because I’m familiar with it from fonts. I wasn’t trying to produce a pointedly unconventional face in that respect.
I find it strange that pen writing plays such a strong role in the rationale for the conservative Greek idiom, Ben mentions it too.
The “certain kind of ductus” I’m talking about is perhaps easier to see in sans types, more about shape than stress.
I provided optional forms of many characters in Figgins Sans, via a Stylistic Set.
I don’t see why the “proper” form has to be busy and fussy, why it can’t be simplified, without losing its orthographic integrity.
Ben: I wouldn't say Gerry has 'established' the ductus.
Gerry has been a tireless advocate of proper Greek, across the type industry. You can see that not just in MATD students’ work and his TDC seminar, but also in the foundry faces he has consulted on, including the ClearType fonts and Whitney. He has been the go-to guy for Western type designers who want to do Greek right, highly influential.