A brief biography of Edward Johnston and his signature typeface for the brand for Transport of London. A pleasure read for type nerds.

Vietnamese Typography welcomes two new additions to its “Type Recommendations” chapter: Mallory and Retina. These two typefaces, designed by Tobias Frere-Jones and his team, are big gains for the Vietnamese language.

I have admired Frere-Jones’s types and wanted to showcase them for a long time; therefore, I am very excited that he allowed me to do so. In return, I hope that my type specimen would bring more attention to people who are interested in Vietnamese typography. I also want to thank my friend Tim Brown for setting me up with Typekit.

Speaking of the specimens, I incorporated both the Standard and MicroPlus variations. If you want to see MicroPlus in action, look at the paragraph text on your mobile device or dragging in your browser.

Tôi vừa đọc sơ qua bài “ChữViệt Năm 2020.” Nội dung cụ thể là sửa đổi cách viết từ đơn âm qua đa âm. Thí dụ:

ChữViệt chúngta đang sửdụng không phảnảnh đúng mộtcách khoahọc thựctrạng tiếngViệt ngàynay. Cáchviết chữViệt hiệntại cầnphảiđược cảitổ hay sửađổilại khôngchỉ để phùhợp tiếngnói màcòn manglại những lợiích thiếtthực trong việcxửlý thôngtin nhanhchóng và chínhxác trong bộóc conngười cũngnhư máyvitính tạođiềukiện trựctiếp hoặc giántiếp gópphần pháttriển Việtnam trong lãnhvực kỹthuật của thờiđại hômnay.

Theo tôi thì cách sửa đổi này có nhiều vấn đề cho người đọc lẫn người viết. Khi đọc ta không đọc từng chữ mà dùng saccades. Nghĩa là ta chỉ lướt qua và bắt chữ theo nhịp điệu. Khi chữ rời ra ta dễ dàng nhận ra chữ. Khi chữ ghép lại ta phải dừng lại để chia ra chữ. Thí vụ như chữ “hệthống” là “hệt hống” hay “hệ thống.” Khi đọc bài viết này, tôi phải rất nhiều lần ngừng để đọc rõ hai hoặc ba chữ ghép lại là gì.

Những chữ ghép lại bị gò bó phải có ý nghĩa nên người viết sẽ mất đi cách chơi chữ vì không thể muốn ghép chữ nào vào cũng được. Thí dụ câu này trong bài “Phố buồn” của Phạm Duy: “Yêu phố vui, nhà gạch ngon.” Hai chữ “gạchngon” không thể đi cùng nhau như Phạm Duy đã khéo léo dùng.

Chỉ với riêng hai vấn đề này tôi thấy cách sửa đổi sẽ làm xáo trộn và hạng hẹp đi cách viết chữ Việt. Có lẽ tôi vẫn chưa hiểu rõ cái lợi hoặc sáo tạo trong việc ghép chữ.

A thrilling, entertaining, and exploiting picaresque narrated by a communist spy who is a Mỹ Lai (son of a Vietnamese mother and a Western priest). Although Nguyễn had left Vietnam when he was four, he masterfully captured many scenes that are relatable to Vietnamese Americans. As someone who rarely reads novel, I managed to get through the book because of Nguyễn’s playful, virtuous writing. My paperback copy is now filled with Post-It flags. Here’s a taste on cleavage:

While I was critical of many things when it came to so-called Western civilization, cleavage is not one of them. The Chinese might have invented gunpowder and the noodle, but the West had invented cleavage, with profound if under appreciated implications. A man gazing on semi-exposed breasts was not only engaging in simple lasciviousness, he was also meditating, even if unawares, on the visual embodiment of the verb “to cleave,” which meant both to cut apart and to put together. A woman’s cleavage perfectly illustrated this double and contradictory meaning, the breasts two separate entities with one identity. The double meaning was also present in how cleavage separated a woman from a man and yet drew him to her with irresistible force of sliding down a slippery slope. Men had no equivalent, except, perhaps, for the only kind of male cleavage most women truly cared for, the opening and closing of a well-stuffed billfold.

A few weeks ago, Đạo started his chess lesson once a week after school. He has been excited to play with me at home. The first time we played, he did well for a beginner. He lost, but commanded all the moves. The second time we played, he lost again, but got better. My wife told me that I should let him win. The third time we played, he lost again, but flipped out because he could not get any victory. I calmly explained to him that he would learn much more through losing. I told him my experience of how I learned to play Chinese chess.

When I started learning Chinese chess, I was around his age or a couple years older. My father was hardly around; therefore, I played mostly with kids in the neighborhood. I preferred to play with kids who could beat me. They motivated me to get better at my game. I learned to defend first before attack. Although I have not played Chinese chess for a long time, the concept and strategy stayed with me. Transferring those skills to chess was easy.

I am not that great at chess and I am sure Đạo will beat me in the near future. We played the forth time and he showed improvements. He watched my moves to defend his pieces. Although he lost, but his awareness is sharper. I hope that losing would make him stronger and wanted to play better. I don’t see the point of letting him win. He needs to earn his victory. Once he gets there, he will feel great. I don’t think I am being to hard on him.

Ngô Thiên Bảo:

I found your vietnamesetypography.com website, and I am so glad to see someone distill all the thoughts that go into good Vietnamese typography.… I’ve sent my donation to support your online book as gift to future designers in our community.

I really appreciate your generous support.

Chen Hui Jing’s “A Complete Guide to CSS Grid” for Codrops and Rachel Andrew’s “CSS Grid Layout” are on my to-read list.

Better Web Typography for a Better Web is an email course teaches web designers and developers typesetting for the web. The author is Matej Latin who is the creator of Gutenberg—the Meaningful Web Typography Starter Kit and Quotes on Type.

I have been enjoying Chris Silverman’s One Hundred Things. Chris is a former colleague at Vassar, a dear friend, and a kick-ass illustrator. Also check out his beautiful editorial design for Vassar Stories.

From Jesus as a shitty carpenter to white women taking over Brooklyn to being pro-choice for not having kids, SNL’s Michael Che is provocative but honest. He also explains “screw the pooch,” which doesn’t meaning to fuck a dog. His materials are a bit scattered, but hilarious with punchlines.