22 January 04

Abecedarian Fun

An abecedarian sentence, also known as a pangram, is one that contains every letter of the alphabet, such as “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” They are favorite things of calligraphers and typographers, and have a long history. (According to Marc Drogin’s Medieval Calligraphy, an eighth-century one is Te canit adcelebratque polus rex gazifer hymnis [The hymn, oh treasure-bearing king, sings of you, and the pole also honors you.]). When I practice my calligraphy, I often write “Mad brother Jarvis was quickly axed for crazy praying.”

Now it is easier than ever to come up with one, thanks to Mark Simonson’s Pangrammer Helper. My favorite sentence in the thread discussing this tool on Typographica is “Vexed, George W. Bush just zooms like crazy puffs with no I.Q.”.

Posted by at 08:45 PM in Design Arts | Link |
  1. people always look at me as if I’m quite strange when I accidentally say something out loud such as “words are my toys, and the entire store is on sale” or some such thing.

    I can appreciate your fondness for an abecedarian sentence … deliciously fun, and free for the taking (or making).

    — ntexas99    23. January 2004, 18:41    Link

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