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Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Cursive Letters
๐“˜ ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ฒ๐“ท๐“ด ๐“ฌ๐“ช๐“น๐“ฒ๐“ฝ๐“ช๐“ต ๐“› ๐“ฒ๐“ผ ๐“น๐“ป๐“ธ๐“ซ๐“ช๐“ซ๐“ต๐”‚ ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ฎ ๐“ถ๐“ธ๐“ผ๐“ฝ ๐“ฏ๐“พ๐“ท ๐“ฝ๐“ธ ๐”€๐“ป๐“ฒ๐“ฝ๐“ฎ, ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ธ๐“พ๐“ฐ๐“ฑ ๐“ต๐“ธ๐”€๐“ฎ๐“ป๐“ฌ๐“ช๐“ผ๐“ฎ ๐“บ ๐“ฒ๐“ผ ๐“ช๐“ต๐“ผ๐“ธ ๐“ช ๐“ผ๐“ฝ๐“ป๐“ธ๐“ท๐“ฐ ๐“ฌ๐“ธ๐“ท๐“ฝ๐“ฎ๐“ท๐“ญ๐“ฎ๐“ป.
Title text: ๐“˜ ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ฒ๐“ท๐“ด ๐“ฌ๐“ช๐“น๐“ฒ๐“ฝ๐“ช๐“ต ๐“› ๐“ฒ๐“ผ ๐“น๐“ป๐“ธ๐“ซ๐“ช๐“ซ๐“ต๐”‚ ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ฎ ๐“ถ๐“ธ๐“ผ๐“ฝ ๐“ฏ๐“พ๐“ท ๐“ฝ๐“ธ ๐”€๐“ป๐“ฒ๐“ฝ๐“ฎ, ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ธ๐“พ๐“ฐ๐“ฑ ๐“ต๐“ธ๐”€๐“ฎ๐“ป๐“ฌ๐“ช๐“ผ๐“ฎ ๐“บ ๐“ฒ๐“ผ ๐“ช๐“ต๐“ผ๐“ธ ๐“ช ๐“ผ๐“ฝ๐“ป๐“ธ๐“ท๐“ฐ ๐“ฌ๐“ธ๐“ท๐“ฝ๐“ฎ๐“ท๐“ญ๐“ฎ๐“ป.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a ๐“‘๐“ž๐“ฃ ๐“ฆ๐“˜๐“ฃ๐“— ๐““๐“”๐“’๐“”๐“๐“ฃ ๐“—๐“๐“๐““๐“ฆ๐“ก๐“˜๐“ฃ๐“˜๐“๐“– - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.

This graph ranks cursive Latin script letters. The type of cursive used is closest to D'Nealian (notably the Q) though a few of the letters appear to be in the Zaner-Bloser style of cursive (specifically the P and p). The graph uses two criteria: legibility and coolness.

According to the graph in the comic: 'L' is in the top-right quadrant indicating it is both cool and easy to read; 'C' is in the top-left, meaning it is easy to read, yet not cool; 'Z' and 'z' are in the bottom-right which means cool looking, yet not easy to read; and 'r' which is bottom-left indicating it is neither particularly cool nor very easy to read (perhaps being confusable as a form of 'n', or even 'M', at least until actual cursive versions of those are comparable against).

The purpose of cursive is to allow efficient handwriting and make characters look nice and more "connected" at the same time. The possible downside of this is the legibility of the individual letters. This may be due to the similarity of cursive letter shapes (e.g. 'U' and 'V' in the graph), especially when joined to other letters, or due their dissimilarity from more familiar "block letter" counterparts (e.g. 'Z' and 'z' in the lower right corner).

In the title text, Randall states 'L' and 'q' are letters that he enjoys writing in cursive, which could possibly add a third axis (most fun to least fun) to the graph. Notably, some RSS apps have challenges displaying the font and result in settings of '???'s.

The title text is written in cursive-looking font using upper unicode characters (encoded as UTF-8). Example: the cursive I character ๐“˜ (Unicode 120024 U+1D4D8) is F0 9D 93 98 in UTF-8. The title text includes 22 of 26 characters in the English lowercase alphabet and is thus 4 characters short of a pangram (missing letters: j, v, x and z). Pangrams are often used to show the characters in a typeface in print or on a computer screen. It is unclear if the comic deliberately chose the words in the title text to show almost all the characters in cursive or if it is simply a coincidence.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
[A graph with 10 ticks on both the X and Y axes. The graph contains cursive uppercase and lowercase Latin letters. X axis is labeled "Looks cool" with an arrow pointing right and Y axis is labeled "Easy to tell what letter it's supposed to be" with an arrow pointing upward. From top to bottom, left to right, the letters are: C, B, P, K, d, X, R; M, N, c, O, x, t, y, L; D, W, a, Y, o, i; H; A, b, j; p, h; w, Q; m, u, k, g; E, I, l, q; f, J; U, V, T, e; n; v, F; G; r, S, s, z, Z.]


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