It’s not something you’d confess in tenth grade, but I’ve always been fascinated by typography. By crisp, pared down symbols in clear white space, the infinite variety of lines, ligatures and curves that make up the letters of language. Even the sample sheets for typefaces that display their letter shapes (or fonts) in different weights and sizes resemble beautiful, yet arcane, pieces of art.

這不是您十年級時要承認的事情，但是我一直對版式著迷。 在清晰的空白區域中，通過清晰而精簡的符號，構成語言字母的線條，連字和曲線的種類繁多。 甚至以不同的權重和大小顯示其字母形狀(或字體)的字體樣張也類似于精美但神秘的藝術品。

Now, I appreciate this might sound a little geeky, but trust me. If you want to find a small, but perfectly formed, distraction during these difficult times, pay a visit to the Google Fonts website and look at the vast array of typefaces on display. Try writing a sentence in the Font Generator field and see it reproduced in one of the hundreds of different styles available. I guarantee that you’ll be there for at least ten minutes. Even better, try it on your housebound tenth graders. They might be there for hours (even if most of what they’ll be writing won’t be suitable for a family-friendly article on Medium)!

現在，我很欣賞這聽起來有些怪異，但請相信我。 如果您想在困難時期找到小的但結構完美的分散注意力，請訪問Google字體網站，并查看顯示的大量字體。 嘗試在“字體生成器”字段中寫一個句子，然后查看它以數百種可用樣式之一重現。 我保證您會在那里至少十分鐘。 更好的是，在您的家庭十年級生上嘗試一下。 他們可能在那里待了幾個小時(即使他們將要寫的大部分內容都不適合在Medium上寫一篇家庭友好的文章)！

But there is something playful about seeing your random thoughts recreated instantly in print. And the typeface names themselves are worthy of a journey of discovery: from Annie Use Your Telescope to Delius, Irish Grover to Orbitron, Tangerine to Zilla and dozens of weird, wonderful and evocative creations in between.

但是，看到您的隨機想法立即在印刷品中重現，這有些有趣。 字體名稱本身也值得探索：從安妮使用望遠鏡到Delius，愛爾蘭格羅弗到Orbitron，橘子到Zilla，以及介于兩者之間的數十種怪異，奇妙而令人回味的創作。

When is a typeface not a typeface? When it’s a font.

什么時候字體不是字體？ 當是字體時。

It might help at this point to quickly understand the difference between a typeface (Helvetica) and its fonts (Thin, Light, Regular, Bold etc). This is an important distinction because a

這可能有助于快速了解字體(Helvetica)和其字體(稀，淺，常規，粗體等)之間的區別。 這是一個重要的區別，因為

And before you ask, yes, there is a typeface called Ziggy Stardust, but not a Laughing Gnome.

在您問之前，是的，有一種字體叫Ziggy Stardust，但沒有Laughing Gnome。

Google is perhaps the most widely used typeface/font library in use today largely because Google Fonts are free and widely accessible. You don’t need to be a designer either. If you want to pep up your shopping list or family calendar with some new typefaces, it’s easy to download them to your computer from the Google Fonts website. And there are many more commercial font foundries whose typefaces provide definition and structure to almost everything that we create in print and online.

谷歌也許是當今使用最廣泛的字體庫，這在很大程度上是因為谷歌字體是免費的并且可廣泛訪問。 您也不需要成為設計師。 如果您想使用一些新字體來增加購物清單或家庭日歷的色彩，可以很容易地將它們從Google字體網站下載到您的計算機上。 還有更多的商業字體鑄造廠，其字體為我們在印刷和在線創建的幾乎所有內容提供了定義和結構。

It seems fitting that the raw material of our written word should have a language all of its own: uppercase, vertex, beak, bar, glyph, teardrop terminal, tittle, tail, stroke, swash, spur, shoulder, open counter and overshoot. With few exceptions, most of us wouldn’t be able to describe what these terms mean even though we use their subjects as naturally and profusely as the air that we breathe.

似乎我們的書面文字的原始材料應該具有自己所有的語言：大寫，頂點，喙，條，字形，淚滴末端，標題，尾部，筆劃，斜線，正刺，肩膀，反擊和過沖。 除了少數例外，即使我們像呼吸的空氣一樣自然而充分地使用他們的主題，我們大多數人也無法描述這些術語的含義。

脾氣暴躁的巫師和狐貍 (Grumpy wizards and quick foxes)

By convention, most font libraries use pangrams to display the alphabets of each particular family because it’s easier to get a feel for how a passage may appear on screen, or in print, if the characters express something meaningful instead of just being an inventory of letters.

按照慣例，大多數字體庫都使用字符集來顯示每個特定家族的字母，因為如果字符表達的是有意義的內容而不只是字母的清單，則更容易了解段落在屏幕上或印刷品上的顯示方式。 。

At least, that’s the theory. But, as anyone who has ever tried to create a pangram, (or even its baby sibling, the anagram) knows, maintaining clarity while still using all the letters is a fiendish challenge requiring all the skills of a crossword demon. More commonly, foundry pangrams use between thirty five and fifty letters and even then “a quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” (33 letters) is almost Shakespearean compared to some examples.

至少，這就是理論。 但是，正如任何曾經嘗試創建字母拼寫(或什至是其嬰兒兄弟姐妹，字謎)的人都知道的那樣，在仍然使用所有字母的同時保持清晰度是一個嚴峻的挑戰，需要填字游戲惡魔的所有技能。 更為常見的是，鑄造公司使用的字母在35至50個字母之間，與某些示例相比，“然后一只快速的棕色狐貍跳過懶狗”(33個字母)幾乎是莎士比亞的。

Previously on the Walking Dead… boxed quail jam and calf zest

以前在《行尸走肉》中盒裝鵪鶉果醬和小牛皮

It seems ironic that we should use nonsense to illuminate typography, one of the most brilliant achievements of the human mind. With language, the sum of the whole is infinitely greater than its parts.

具有諷刺意味的是，我們應該胡說八道來闡明印刷術，這是人類思想上最輝煌的成就之一。 對于語言，整體的總和要無限大于其各個部分。

幼稚的前衛巫師在方塊洞中安靜地飛行水貂噴射機 (Boyish prog wizard flys mink jets quietly in box caves)

But although jumping foxes, lazy dogs and even boxed quail jam will seem familiar to English speakers, just about every language has pangrams and it’s amusing to make comparisons between them.

但是，盡管講英語的人似乎很喜歡跳狐，懶狗甚至盒裝鵪鶉果醬，但幾乎每種語言都有pangram，在它們之間進行比較很有趣。

The nursery rhyme rhythms of:

童謠的節奏：

Five quacking zephyrs jolt my wax bed

五個嘎嘎的和風顛簸了我的蠟床

used by Apple for previewing True Type fonts in Mac OS X can’t compete with the evocative, yet somehow propagandist, fervour of:

蘋果公司用于在Mac OS X中預覽True Type字體的軟件無法與令人回味的，但以某種方式進行宣傳的產品相抗衡：

Ах чудна българска земьо, полюшквай цъфтящи жита

Ахчуднабългарсказемьо，полюшквайцъфтящижита

Wonderful Bulgarian land, shake the blooming wheatfields

美妙的保加利亞土地，撼動盛開的麥田

And the Bulgarians aren’t finished yet. How about the surrealist fancy of:

保加利亞人還沒有完成。 那么超現實主義的幻想：

За миг бях в чужд плюшен скърцащ фотьойл

Замигбяхвчуждплюшенскърцащфотьойл

For a moment I was in someone else’s plush squeaking armchair.

一會兒，我坐在別人的長毛絨扶手椅上。

Where I found myself struggling with fourteen across.

我發現自己在十四個掙扎中掙扎。

In Czech, the dazzling surrealism of:

在捷克語中，令人眼花sur亂的超現實主義是：

Nech? ji? h?í?né saxofony ?ábl? rozzvu?í síň úděsnymi tóny waltzu, tanga a quickstep

Nechaji?h?í?nésaxofony?ábl?rozzvu?ísíňúděsnymitónywaltzu，坦a

Let the sinful saxophones of devils finally make the hall resonate with the frightful tones of waltz, tango and quickstep

讓邪惡的薩克斯風最終使大廳與華爾茲，探戈和敏捷步調的可怕音調共鳴

uses all the linguistic characters of the language, including the accents, as does this Finnish effort:

使用該語言的所有語言特征(包括口音)，這與芬蘭的努力一樣：

T?rkylempij?vongahdus

T?rkylempij?vongahdus

which literally translates as

從字面上翻譯為

Mucky snogger booty-call

莫基斯諾格戰利品電話

I have no idea how you mucky snog someone while doing a booty call. I don’t recommend you try it on a Tinder date. I do know, however, that there are apparently no ‘z’s in the Finnish language.

我不知道你在打電話時怎么會悶悶不樂。 我不建議您在Tinder日期嘗試。 但是，我確實知道芬蘭語中顯然沒有“ z”。

Perhaps a mucky snog is something you get from an Ombie? Darryl and Carol beware! Don’t get trapped trying to find the last jar of quail jam!

也許從Ombie那里可以得到一些令人討厭的東西？ 達里爾和卡羅爾當心！ 不要為找到最后一罐鵪鶉果醬而被困！

But if that Finnish pangram sounds too much like ‘letter M’s behaving badly’, one can always rely on the French to offer a more seductive and elegant alternative.

但是，如果芬蘭的龐克制聽起來太像“字母M表現不佳”，那么人們總是可以依靠法國人提供一種更誘人和優雅的選擇。

Portez ce vieux whisky au juge blond qui fume

Portez ce vieux威士忌au juge金發qui fume

Take this old whisky to the blond smoking judge

拿這瓶老威士忌給金發碧眼的吸煙法官

This could almost be the opening sentence of a roman à clef devoted to the contemplation of luxurious vices. Or perhaps just the latest twist in a Gallic political scandal, delivered with a characteristic shrug in a cloud of Gauloise.

這幾乎可以說是一個羅馬譜號的開場白，上面寫著沉思奢華的惡習。 或者，也許只是高盧政治丑聞中的最新轉折，在高盧瓦烏云中聳了聳肩。

In comparison to that sleek French effort, one of the best German pangrams:

與法國人的時尚努力相比，德國最好的五角星之一：

Falsches üben von Xylophonmusik qu?lt jeden gr??eren Zwerg

Falschesübenvon Xylophonmusikqu?ltjedengr??erenZwerg

Wrong practising of xylophone music bothers every larger dwarf

木琴音樂的錯誤練習困擾著所有大矮人

just comes across as trying too hard. Look, it’s funny. It really is.

只是覺得太努力了。 看，真有趣。 真的是

This Hebrew pangram:

希伯來語pangram：

?? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ????? ??? ????

?????????????????????????

A curious fish sailed the sea disappointedly, and suddenly found company

一只好奇的魚失望地在海上航行，突然發現了伴

seems like a parable whereas the Gaelic language most definitely goes the whole Catholic hog:

似乎是一個寓言，而蓋爾語無疑是整個天主教徒所為：

D’fuascail íosa úrac na hói?e Beannaite pór éaba agus ádaim”

D'fuascailíosaúracnahói?eBeannaitepóréabaagusádaim”

Jesus, Son of the blessed Virgin, redeemed the seed of Eve and Adam.

耶穌是有福的處女的兒子，贖回了夏娃和亞當的后裔。

Italian is characteristically nonchalant:

意大利語的特點是冷淡：

“Qualche notizia pavese mi fa sbadigliare”

“ Qualche notizia pavese mi fa sbadigliare”

Some news from Pavia makes me yawn

帕維亞的一些消息使我打哈欠

and Korean is scrupulously methodical and precise, as befits the home of some of the world’s leading technology companies.

韓國語是嚴格有條理和精確的，因為它適合一些世界領先的科技公司的所在地。

??? ????? ???? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??

?????????????

The essential condition for a kiss is that lips meet and there is no special technique required

接吻的基本條件是嘴唇相遇且無需特殊技巧

If only the instruction manuals were quite so clear. Perhaps the Korean letters need to spend more mucky snogging booty time in Finland.

如果只是說明手冊如此清晰。 也許朝鮮字母需要在芬蘭花更多的時間來討論戰利品時間。

Polish offers this profoundly sad and reflective pangram:

波蘭語提供了這種深深的悲傷和反省的pangram：

M??ny b?d?, chroń pu?k twój i sze?? flag

M??nyb?d?，克朗·普沃克·西施奇旗

Come on, drop your sadness into the depth of a bottle!

來吧，將您的悲傷降到瓶子的深處！

which makes me want to crack open a bottle of vodka and drink until the wheatfields bloom like they do in Bulgaria.

這使我想打開一瓶伏特加酒和飲料，直到麥田像保加利亞一樣開花。

But having considered all these pangrams from around the world, for nonsense, lunacy, wisdom and fun, I think my favourite has to be this offering from the Ukraine:

但是，考慮到來自世界各地的所有pangram的廢話，瘋狂，智慧和樂趣之后，我認為我最喜歡的應該是來自烏克蘭的產品：

Жебракують ф?лософи при ?анку церкви в Гадяч?, ще й шатро ?хн? п’яне зна?мо

，ебракуютьф?лософипри?анкуцерквивГадяч?，щешатро?хн?п'янезна?мо

The philosophers beg near the porch of the church in Hadiach, and we even know their drunk tent.

哲學家在哈底亞赫教堂的門廊附近乞討，我們甚至知道他們的醉漢帳篷。

Which I interpret as a warning: don’t trust people who say they are cleverer than you, or who claim to have special insight because the chances are, they’re going to lead you to ruin.

我認為這是警告：不要相信那些說自己比您聰明的人，或者聲稱自己有特殊見識的人，因為這些機會很可能會導致您破產。

Or put simply, avoid alcohol, religion and smarty pants and you’ll do alright in life. Pre-coronavirus, that might have been a parable for the modern age but maybe now this is a better summary:

或者簡單地說，避免飲酒，宗教信仰和精明的褲子，您會過上好日子。 冠狀病毒之前，這可能是現代的寓言，但也許現在這是一個更好的總結：

Just how quickly boredom vexes my flippant gaze

無聊多快讓我討厭的目光凝視

I hope your quarantine period is not too stressful and I wish you health and happiness until we emerge from present challenges.

我希望您的檢疫期不會太緊張，也希望您健康和幸福，直到我們擺脫當前的挑戰。

(If you want to create some pangrams of your own, visit the excellent https://pangram.me and feel free to add your best ones in the comments!)

(如果您想創建自己的一些Pangram，請訪問出色的https://pangram.me，并隨時在評論中添加最好的Pangram！)