What Is This Thing?

ClaWrite is a 'dragon' alphabet based on a 3x3 grid of straight strokes, which are very easily made with the claws, hence the name.

Who's it for?
Anyone. I've been known to take ClaWrite class notes in my secret identity of college student. :-)

Why use it?
For its elegance, simplicity, legibility, and because I'm trying to get it adapted as some kind of standard. :-) Everyone I've taught it to so far has agreed it's got definite advantages over ordinary English lettering.

So what is it?
**If you're using a text-based
browser, use the download link at the bottom of the page.**
This is the ClaWrite alphabet. I would advise you to print this out or copy the letters down for later reference.

Technically, this is all you need to start using ClaWrite. However, it also comes with punctuation, and may someday also include a numbering system. (Until then, just use Arabic numerals...you know, 1, 2, 3,...)

Important!

ClaWrite contains no capital letters. However, do you notice the extra character at the top left, the triple-horizontal-bar? That signifies that the following letter is capitalized. (See the title graphic of the page for a good example.)

And what about punctuation?
I'll get to that later. Pictures take time, darn it. For now, feel free to use normal English punctuation.

Basics | FAQ | Downloads

Your Questions Answered

The Official ClaWrite FAQ (and other stuff)

Got a question that's not covered?
Ask and ye shall receive!

Wherefore the vowels?

There's a very easy way to remember which vowels are which. (Which is a helpful thing, since at first glance they make little to no sense.) They follow a simple progression...:

  |    -    ||    ¯   | |
  a    e    i     o    u

Notice they go from fewer to more lines as you go from A to U, and that they alternate between horizontal and vertical. This is actually quite convenient because A and E are the most-often used vowels.
To be honest, practice will do it for you. Half an hour and you'll be fine, I promise.

Any diagonal lines in there?

Yes, in fact. Only in two circumstances, though.
To illustrate the first, let's take our Word Of The Day from Webster's:
Chautauqua (shuh-TOW-kwuh) (n.) An educational and recreational assembly with ... lectures, concerts, etc.
...In ClaWrite, it looks like this: [Image.]

Ugly. Not to mention illegible.
Our fix is to slash through the U's to separate them from the A's, like so...: [Image.]

The second circumstance: A popular shortcut for the ellipsis (the unit of punctuation consisting of three periods, like this...) is to make three diagonal slash marks, like so: / / /

What's this AMEC stuff?

AMEC stands for American English ClaWrite. Since ClaWrite is, after all, only an alphabet, AMEC tells you the handy information that it's an alphabet for writing in English. It can easily be adapted, though, to any language with less than 50 letters. (Spanish and Ancient Garnian alphabets have also been developed; contact the address at the bottom of the page for foreign-language ClaWrite information.)

Why is there no '=' character? There's only E and O with horizontal slashes, compared to A, I, and U with vertical.

Because GALC (Garnian Languages ClaWrite) has both a hard I and a soft I. The '=' character was left out in AMEC for compatibility.

$\ \ \$

Basics | FAQ | Downloads

The Goods

Heh heh heh. I knew you'd end up here sooner or later.

Without further ado...:

A GIF of the alphabet for those with text-based browsers. If you can't handle GIF files, please e-mail me with a SnailMail address and I'll be happy to send you ClaWrite information in an old-fashioned letter. }:=8)
ClaWrite: The Font. Macintosh version. Thank you Greffindel for your help in getting the font started!
ClaWrite: The Font, part ][. This is a ZIP file for IBM-compatible users. Run the enclosed application from the DOS prompt and your system font will change to ClaWrite until you reboot your computer. Many thanks to Mark Johnston (numlock@escape dot ca) for the font!
Wanted: Currently, I have no TrueType ClaWrite font for IBM-compatible machines. If you have an application that builds TrueType fonts, and would like to make a ClaWrite font, please help me out.
A sneaky link to make you mail me with feedback and suggestions. Maybe you can actually download something by clicking here. Try it and let me know. ;-)

Thanks for reading!

Comments? Suggestions? Drop me a line, and I will feel really good about all the work I put into all of this. (ClaWrite isn't shareware. I'm not getting any money out of it.)

Go bax to the links page.
Shortcuts to Bax's Page | to the Dragon Code Page | to the A.M.M-A Page.

Maintained by Tad Ramspott aka Baxil. Address questions, comments, spam, mating proposals (hopefully accompanied by a statement of sanity), and resumes (hopefully accompanied by a mating proposal) to Me.

Last updated Jan 15 1997