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.

这不是您十年级时要承认的事情，但是我一直对版式着迷。 在清晰的空白区域中，通过清晰而精简的符号，构成语言字母的线条，连字和曲线的种类繁多。 甚至以不同的权重和大小显示其字母形状(或字体)的字体样张也类似于精美但神秘的艺术品。

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)!

现在，我很欣赏这听起来有些怪异，但请相信我。 如果您想在困难时期找到小的但结构完美的分散注意力，请访问Google字体网站，并查看显示的大量字体。 尝试在“字体生成器”字段中写一个句子，然后查看它以数百种可用样式之一重现。 我保证您会在那里至少十分钟。 更好的是，在您的家庭十年级生上尝试一下。 他们可能在那里待了几个小时(即使他们将要写的大部分内容都不适合在Medium上写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，看到您的随机想法立即在印刷品中重现，这有些有趣。 字体名称本身也值得探索：从安妮使用望远镜到Delius，爱尔兰格罗弗到Orbitron，橘子到Zilla，以及介于两者之间的数十种怪异，奇妙而令人回味的创作。

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

什么时候字体不是字体？ 当是字体时。

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

这可能有助于快速了解字体(Helvetica)和其字体(稀，浅，常规，粗体等)之间的区别。 这是一个重要的区别，因为

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

在您问之前，是的，有一种字体叫Ziggy Stardust，但没有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.

谷歌也许是当今使用最广泛的字体库，这在很大程度上是因为谷歌字体是免费的并且可广泛访问。 您也不需要成为设计师。 如果您想使用一些新字体来增加购物清单或家庭日历的色彩，可以很容易地将它们从Google字体网站下载到您的计算机上。 还有更多的商业字体铸造厂，其字体为我们在印刷和在线创建的几乎所有内容提供了定义和结构。

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.

似乎我们的书面文字的原始材料应该具有自己所有的语言：大写，顶点，喙，条，字形，泪滴末端，标题，尾部，笔划，斜线，正刺，肩膀，反击和过冲。 除了少数例外，即使我们像呼吸的空气一样自然而充分地使用他们的主题，我们大多数人也无法描述这些术语的含义。

脾气暴躁的巫师和狐狸 (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.

按照惯例，大多数字体库都使用字符集来显示每个特定家族的字母，因为如果字符表达的是有意义的内容而不只是字母的清单，则更容易了解段落在屏幕上或印刷品上的显示方式。 。

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，这就是理论。 但是，正如任何曾经尝试创建字母拼写(或什至是其婴儿兄弟姐妹，字谜)的人都知道的那样，在仍然使用所有字母的同时保持清晰度是一个严峻的挑战，需要填字游戏恶魔的所有技能。 更为常见的是，铸造公司使用的字母在35至50个字母之间，与某些示例相比，“然后一只快速的棕色狐狸跳过懒狗”(33个字母)几乎是莎士比亚的。

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

以前在《行尸走肉》中盒装鹌鹑果酱和小牛皮

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.

具有讽刺意味的是，我们应该胡说八道来阐明印刷术，这是人类思想上最辉煌的成就之一。 对于语言，整体的总和要无限大于其各个部分。

幼稚的前卫巫师在方块洞中安静地飞行水貂喷射机 (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，尽管讲英语的人似乎很喜欢跳狐，懒狗甚至盒装鹌鹑果酱，但几乎每种语言都有pangram，在它们之间进行比较很有趣。

The nursery rhyme rhythms of:

童谣的节奏：

Five quacking zephyrs jolt my wax bed

五个嘎嘎的和风颠簸了我的蜡床

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

苹果公司用于在Mac OS X中预览True Type字体的软件无法与令人回味的，但以某种方式进行宣传的产品相抗衡：

Ах чудна българска земьо, полюшквай цъфтящи жита

Ахчуднабългарсказемьо，полюшквайцъфтящижита

Wonderful Bulgarian land, shake the blooming wheatfields

美妙的保加利亚土地，撼动盛开的麦田

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

保加利亚人还没有完成。 那么超现实主义的幻想：

За миг бях в чужд плюшен скърцащ фотьойл

Замигбяхвчуждплюшенскърцащфотьойл

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

一会儿，我坐在别人的长毛绒扶手椅上。

Where I found myself struggling with fourteen across.

我发现自己在十四个挣扎中挣扎。

In Czech, the dazzling surrealism of:

在捷克语中，令人眼花sur乱的超现实主义是：

Nechť již hříšné saxofony ďáblů rozzvučí síň úděsnými tóny waltzu, tanga a quickstep

Nechajižhříšnésaxofonyďáblůrozzvučísíňúděsnýmitónywaltzu，坦a

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

让邪恶的萨克斯风最终使大厅与华尔兹，探戈和敏捷步调的可怕音调共鸣

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

使用该语言的所有语言特征(包括口音)，这与芬兰的努力一样：

Törkylempijävongahdus

Törkylempijävongahdus

which literally translates as

从字面上翻译为

Mucky snogger booty-call

莫基斯诺格战利品电话

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.

我不知道你在打电话时怎么会闷闷不乐。 我不建议您在Tinder日期尝试。 但是，我确实知道芬兰语中显然没有“ 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!

也许从Ombie那里可以得到一些令人讨厌的东西？ 达里尔和卡罗尔当心！ 不要为找到最后一罐鹌鹑果酱而被困！

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，如果芬兰的庞克制听起来太像“字母M表现不佳”，那么人们总是可以依靠法国人提供一种更诱人和优雅的选择。

Portez ce vieux whisky au juge blond qui fume

Portez ce vieux威士忌au juge金发qui fume

Take this old whisky to the blond smoking judge

拿这瓶老威士忌给金发碧眼的吸烟法官

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.

这几乎可以说是一个罗马谱号的开场白，上面写着沉思奢华的恶习。 或者，也许只是高卢政治丑闻中的最新转折，在高卢瓦乌云中耸了耸肩。

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

与法国人的时尚努力相比，德国最好的五角星之一：

Falsches Üben von Xylophonmusik quält jeden größeren Zwerg

FalschesÜbenvon XylophonmusikquältjedengrößerenZwerg

Wrong practising of xylophone music bothers every larger dwarf

木琴音乐的错误练习困扰着所有大矮人

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

只是觉得太努力了。 看，真有趣。 真的是

This Hebrew pangram:

希伯来语pangram：

דג סקרן שט בים מאוכזב ולפתע מצא חברה

בבןבביםמאוכזבולפתעמצאחברה

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

一只好奇的鱼失望地在海上航行，突然发现了伴

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

似乎是一个寓言，而盖尔语无疑是整个天主教徒所为：

D’fuascail Íosa Úrac na hÓiġe Beannaite pór Éaba agus Ádaim”

D'fuascailÍosaÚracnahÓiġeBeannaitepórÉabaagusÁdaim”

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

耶稣是有福的处女的儿子，赎回了夏娃和亚当的后裔。

Italian is characteristically nonchalant:

意大利语的特点是冷淡：

“Qualche notizia pavese mi fa sbadigliare”

“ Qualche notizia pavese mi fa sbadigliare”

Some news from Pavia makes me yawn

帕维亚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.

韩国语是严格有条理和精确的，因为它适合一些世界领先的科技公司的所在地。

키스의 고유조건은 입술끼리 만나야 하고 특별한 기술은 필요치 않다

키스의리입술끼기하고기않다

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

接吻的基本条件是嘴唇相遇且无需特殊技巧

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

如果只是说明手册如此清晰。 也许朝鲜字母需要在芬兰花更多的时间来讨论战利品时间。

Polish offers this profoundly sad and reflective pangram:

波兰语提供了这种深深的悲伤和反省的pangram：

Mężny bądź, chroń pułk twój i sześć flag

Mężnybądź，克朗·普沃克·西施奇旗

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

来吧，将您的悲伤降到瓶子的深处！

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

这使我想打开一瓶伏特加酒和饮料，直到麦田像保加利亚一样开花。

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，考虑到来自世界各地的所有pangram的废话，疯狂，智慧和乐趣之后，我认为我最喜欢的应该是来自乌克兰的产品：

Жебракують філософи при ґанку церкви в Гадячі, ще й шатро їхнє п’яне знаємо

，ебракуютьфілософиприґанкуцерквивГадячі，щешатроїхнєп'янезнаємо

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

哲学家在哈底亚赫教堂的门廊附近乞讨，我们甚至知道他们的醉汉帐篷。

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.

我认为这是警告：不要相信那些说自己比您聪明的人，或者声称自己有特殊见识的人，因为这些机会很可能会导致您破产。

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:

或者简单地说，避免饮酒，宗教信仰和精明的裤子，您会过上好日子。 冠状病毒之前，这可能是现代的寓言，但也许现在这是一个更好的总结：

Just how quickly boredom vexes my flippant gaze

无聊多快让我讨厌的目光凝视

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

我希望您的检疫期不会太紧张，也希望您健康和幸福，直到我们摆脱当前的挑战。

(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!)

(如果您想创建自己的一些Pangram，请访问出色的https://pangram.me，并随时在评论中添加最好的Pangram！)