Latin & Cyrillic

Integrate Latin and Cyrillic text into your Blissymbolics compositions.

Overview

Prefix a letter with X to render it as a text character alongside Bliss symbols. A multi-letter code spells a whole run of text:

Latin text: Xhello

Input:

Xhello

This is useful for proper names and other words that are spelled rather than symbolized:

name (B464) + the spelled name Anna

Input:

B464//XAnna

Letters render from outlines embedded in the library, so the output is self-contained: it looks the same everywhere, with no font needed where the SVG is displayed.

Writing Latin text

Each letter is its own code: Xa through Xz and XA through XZ. A multi-letter code is shorthand for the letter sequence, and serializes in the expanded form:

The same word, written letter by letter

Input:

Xh/Xe/Xl/Xl/Xo

Accented letters work the same way. The embedded set covers å/ä/ö and a wide selection of European accented letters (é, ñ, ü, ç, š, ł, ž, and more):

Accented letters: Xcafé

Input:

Xcafé

Xnaïve

Input:

Xnaïve

The BCI character codes B29-B54 (a-z) and B55-B80 (A-Z) are aliases for the basic Latin letters; they render identically and serialize as their X-code equivalents.

Writing Cyrillic text

The Russian Cyrillic alphabet (а-я, А-Я, including ё/Ё) is fully covered by embedded outlines:

Cyrillic text: Xпривет

Input:

Xпривет

Letters only

The X notation spells letters, nothing else. Punctuation and digits have no X form: in XAnna-Karin, the letters of Anna render and -Karin is reported as an unknown code. Combining Bliss with full text beyond letters is an open design area; see Compatibility below.

Spacing and styling

Letters in a run are spaced by external-glyph-space (default 0.8 grid units), and carry intrinsic kerning derived from their underlying font. See Spacing for details:

Wider letter spacing

Input:

[external-glyph-space=1.5]||Xhello

Styling options apply to letters like to any other glyph:

Character-level color on the first letter

Input:

[color=green]XA/Xn/Xn/Xa

The supported set

Embedded outlines currently cover:

Group	Characters
Basic Latin	a-z, A-Z
Nordic	å ä ö, Å Ä Ö
European accented letters	a wide selection from Latin-1 and Latin Extended-A (é, ñ, ü, ç, š, ł, ž, œ, and more)
Russian Cyrillic	а-я, А-Я, ё Ё

The set can grow in minor releases. A letter outside it does not fail: it falls back to text rendering, described next.

Text fallback Experimental

A letter the parser recognizes but has no embedded outline for (for example Greek) still renders, as an SVG <text> element:

Greek renders through the text fallback

Input:

Xλόγος

The fallback comes with real limitations, which is why it carries the experimental marking:

• Environment-dependent appearance. A <text> element is drawn with the fonts available where the SVG is displayed, so the exact appearance varies between systems and is not guaranteed.
• SVG display only. For the same reason, a <text> element is typically lost or changed when the SVG is converted to an image (for example PNG) in an environment without matching fonts. Outlined letters survive conversion; fallback letters may not.
• Approximate metrics. Widths for fallback characters are estimated, so precise layouts may need manual kerning or cropping.
• The run falls back as a whole. When a text run mixes outlined and non-outlined letters, the whole run renders as one fallback element, and serializes as one code (Xa/Xλ/Xb serializes as Xaλb).

Text rendering covers the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic letter ranges. X followed by a character outside them (a digit, punctuation) is an unknown code, reported with an UNKNOWN_CODE warning.

Compatibility

X-code input keeps its meaning permanently: a string that parses today keeps parsing and keeps meaning the same text in every future version. The X notation is the library's current mechanism for spelled text, not necessarily its final one: the serialized form and the rendering mechanism may evolve in future releases, always release-noted, and a future mechanism may depend on a font being available where the SVG is generated. The letter B-codes (B29-B80) are stable like every B-code.