Has someone created a capital Eszett character (ẞ) for Computer/Latin Modern Roman?

Question

I have seen how someone was able to create a Bitcoin character for Computer/Latin Modern Roman although it is not a part of the font itself.

The capital ẞ does not seem to be a part of Computer/Latin Modern Roman and alternative fonts have been recommended in order to tackle that problem.

Importing the character from another font can also not be a proper solution.

So, I want to ask whether someone has managed to create the ẞ character in Computer/Latin Modern Roman style although it is not a part of this font but it can be added like the Bitcoin character shown in the example above.

Are you saying you'd like to use the German Eszett as a symbol for bitcoin? It seems from my quick reading that Beta Β, the Thai Baht symbol ฿ or a B with a bar are more common, with $\Beta$ closest to what you're looking for (though in CM/LM it's $\Beta$ looks like B (as it does in the font used here) — Chris H, Dec 21 '17 at 16:58
@Chris H I believe OP just wants to use the Eszett glyph in CM. Is there no Eszett glyph in those fonts? — thymaro, Dec 21 '17 at 21:22
@ChrisH I want to write a capital Eszett. This is a character that is widely unknown, even among German speakers, because a minuscle Eszett (ß) is common. No German word begings with an Eszett. So, the capital form of Eszett can only be used when writing everything in capitals. For example: street – Straße; STREET – STRAẞE. Replacing ß or ẞ with a Beta, however, is a common misconception of foreigners because this letter (which is actually just a ligature (comprised of “ſʒ” (“ſz”) or “ſs”)) is not used in any other language on the planet anymore. A capital Eszett’s form is usually “ſƷ”. — Nemgathos, Dec 22 '17 at 14:53
@ChrisH So, I do not want to write a Bitcoin character. This character has already been created with this trick. Combining “ſ” and “Ʒ”, however, might be a bit trickier. — Nemgathos, Dec 22 '17 at 14:55
@thymaro That is, indeed, the case. I don’t think that there is such a character in the Computer/Latin Modern series yet. But maybe someone has created such a character. — Nemgathos, Dec 22 '17 at 14:56
Sounds a bit like 'ng`. (Though that can occur at the beginning of a word, albeit not in its dictionary form.) Didn't they try to abolish even the lowercase version in German some years ago? I guess that wasn't very successful? — cfr, Dec 23 '17 at 04:41
@cfr Switzerland and Liechtenstein do not use ß anymore. The other German-speaking countries and regions, however, still use it. And it fulfils a certain purpose which one can distinct certain words. For example: Masse – mass; Maße – measures. — Nemgathos, Dec 23 '17 at 19:44
I had the feeling Germany wasn't very successful or did some kind of 'compromise' which just eliminated it from some words, thus confusing things further. I don't remember the details - just the issue as our teachers discussed it. — cfr, Dec 24 '17 at 03:03
@cfr Yes, “ß” was made to “ss” in some cases. But this also follows certain rules. For example, the word “Geschoss” is pronounced with a short “o” in Germany and thus written with “ss”. In Austria, however, it is pronounced with a long “o” and thus written as “Geschoß”. Another example would be “muss”. There, the “u” is short. Thus, the “ß” there will not be needed anymore. (Also look at the example I gave before: Masse – Maße — Nemgathos, Dec 26 '17 at 11:39
The font hasn't the glyph. The best way to get it if you need it badly (I wouldn't use it, I prefer STRASSE in capitals) is to ask the font maintainers to add the glyph. http://www.gust.org.pl/projects/e-foundry/latin-modern — Ulrike Fischer, Jan 03 '18 at 09:39
As the question allows Computer Modern, I'm really hoping someone posts Metafont code, extending the source code for one of the existing characters in Computer Modern. [I'm adding the Metafont tag, in case any such person exists. :-)] — ShreevatsaR, Jan 03 '18 at 17:02
Font design is a subtle thing, and I'm not sure what exactly it means to have this character “for” Computer Modern (as opposed to using the character from another font, which is explicitly described as not a solution). It is possible (with a font design program, including Metafont) to add the character (a picture of the glyph) to Computer Modern or Latin Modern, but what counts as a “correct” solution, in a way that's more “correct” than simply importing from another font? — ShreevatsaR, Jan 08 '18 at 20:01
@ShreevatsaR A correct solution would be a character that has the typical features Computer/Latin Modern Roman has. That is: The style of the font. — Nemgathos, Jan 09 '18 at 17:13
Why is an uppercase esszet meaningful, when the character is a ligatured long-s + short-s (or z), which are both lowercase characters; ß would therefore be appropriate only when writing in lowercase? Just curious to know when the uppercase form started being used, and why it was felt necessary. — Peter Flynn, Jan 01 '19 at 00:29
@PeterFlynn One important use-case are proper names which have to be written in uppercase in some places (e.g. passports). The name WEISS could stand for either Weiss or Weiß. Often WEIß is used to indicate the latter name. WEIẞ is better in that case. — Ralf Stubner, Oct 09 '19 at 11:28

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 13 '19 at 15:13

Answer: no.

Not in the Bitcoin sense. There is no pre-existing character to which additions or transformations could be made to turn it into a 1E9E glyph (ẞ).

Drawing a Bitcoin symbol by taking an existing character and adding rules to it is not the same as having a Bitcoin character in the font.

I can draw a symbol and use it to measure the magnetic temperature of a flux tube on Jupiter, but it is not a font character.

Has someone created a capital Eszett character (ẞ) for Computer/Latin Modern Roman?

1 Answers1