Symbol Font for ASL

Symbol Reference

Building Symbols

Each handshape symbol is mapped to a single character (letter or number). Other symbols (orientation, location) must be made by combining multiple characters.

Handshapes

Tip: Only use h j p q and z when fingerspelling (use u i k g and 1 instead). Only use 2 6 9 and 0 when writing numbers (use v w f and o instead).

These are the available handshapes, arranged by similarity (excluding h j p q z 2 6 9 0 J and Z).

Try it out

Type letters or numbers here to see what each symbol looks like:

Orientation

Each palm orientation symbol is made by placing a finger symbol and a thumb dot next to each other. There are six options for the fingers (' " ~ - = and %), and two for the thumb (` and .). Since the thumb can also appear before or after the fingers, a total of 24 different palm orientations can be represented.

24 orientations (right hand shown)

Each symbol represents an orientation of the right hand and can be used to represent the mirror image of that orientation for the left hand.

The drawn hands show the 24 possible right hand orientations. Obviously the orientations that require uncomfortable rotation of the shoulder or elbow are far less common than the rest of the orientations.

9 most common orientations (both hands shown)

Try it out

Type " = ' - ~ % . and ` here to practice building orientation symbols:

Locations

The { } ( ) and | symbols can be combined with the thumb dots to make location symbols.

Location symbols on the head, body, and non-dominant hand

Head Locations

Thumb dots and vertical bars inside parentheses ( ) represent locations on the head.

Body and Arm Locations

Thumb dots and vertical bars inside curly braces { } represent locations on the body or non-dominant arm.

Hand Locations

Thumb dots and handshapes inside curly braces represent locations on the non-dominant hand.

Directions

There are 18 possible combinations of up, down, left, right, forward, and back, but the font only provides 8 arrows. Some of the arrows will need to ambiguously represent more than one direction.

Signs are written (as they are in both SignWriting and si5s) using the signer's perspective.
This means that as you read these symbols, an arrow pointing to the right means a movement toward your right as though you are the person signing, and an arrow to the left would indicate motion toward your left.

Movement Planes

This is a lot of ambiguity.

Try not to rely on exact directions when writing or reading. Instead, be precise with the other aspects of each sign and the intended directions will usually be understood in the context of the other information.

Whenever possible, try to simplify a movement and write it using non-diagonal directions only.

If absolutely necessary, you can specify a movement plane for a sequence of arrows by combining the arrows with one of these movement plane symbols. (Each consists of a finger orientation symbol between parentheses.)

Relative locations

Arrows and handshapes inside curly braces { } represent a location in the signing area relative to the non-dominant hand.

Reference point locations

Arrows can be combined with movement plane symbols to specify arbitrary locations in the signing area.

Wall plane

Floor plane

Side Wall plane

Contact

When the hands touch a location as part of a sign, contact symbols can specify the type of contact that is made.

Circular Motion

The @ symbol indicates circular motion. When it follows an arrow, the arrow indicates the direction that starts the circular motion, or the direction in which the motion has the most emphasis.

Specifying Plane and Direction

If the other parts of a written sign provide enough information, the circular motion should be understood, even if the arrows' directions are ambiguous.

If absolutely necessary, a circular motion can be specified clockwise or counter clockwise by adding an arrow after the @ and enclosing the symbols in parentheses.

Moving the Non-Dominant Hand

Unless specified, only the dominant hand moves. Parentheses and curly braces can be combined to make symbols that specify motion for the non-dominant hand.

Other modifiers

Non-manual Elements

Facial expressions can be conveyed using emoticons. The shape and spacing of the punctuation symbols has been adjusted to make facial elements work well together.

The nose used in the examples below is the % character introduced in the palm orientation section above. All faces can also be made upside down.

Eyebrows

Eyelids and Nose

Mouth

Try it out

Type here to practice building faces:

Eye movement

Head movement

Head movement

Shoulder movement

Combining Symbols

Putting it all together

The characters in this font can be combined to make symbols for all of these aspects of ASL:

To put the symbols together to make signs, you have to decide in what order the symbols should appear. For a spoken language, this decision is easy - the sounds go in the order that they are spoken and heard. For a written sign system in 2-dimensions, the symbols can be arranged in space rather than in time. But for linear notations for signed languages, a consistent but arbitrary order is usually picked (handshape, location, movement, for example).

Frames

One of the goals of this system is to combine the benefits of a linear notation system with the benefits of a pictorially arranged system. A simple approach to making this happen is to use "frames" of symbols arranged linearly to approximate a picture of the simultaneous elements of a sign. (These are not the same thing as the linguistic concept of frames.) Here are a few examples:

The handshapes and palm orientations are combined to form a picture of how the hands are positioned in relation to each other.

In the case of "game", the contact symbol is placed between the two hands to show that they touch.

Frames can also depict the relationship between the hand and a location on the head or body.

In these examples, the contact symbol connects the hand to the forehead, chest, or elbow symbol.

When a location on, or relative to, the non-dominant hand is specified, the handshape becomes a part of the location, and does not need to be written twice.

Timelines

Frames show symbols from left to right in the order they would appear in a picture of the sign. Timelines are sequences of symbols written in the order that they happen.

Frames and timelines can be combined to give a full sense of all the pieces of a sign.

The }{ at the end of some signs is a non-dominant hand motion symbol that indicates that both hands move, symmetrically.

Simplifying

Removing unnecessary symbols

A shorter way to write some of these signs would be to only specify the information that changes, after the first frame.

In "want", since the orientation stays the same through out the sign, you only need to write the handshape change.

To shorten the sign further, you could move the symmetry symbol to the beginning and take out the left hand information altogether.

In context, you may be able to remove even more information. This form of "want" could also mean "freeze", but in a sentence the reader might be able to guess the correct meaning.

Simplifying Repetition

When an action is repeated, only repeat the movement symbol, and put the changes after it.

Sometimes repetition of the contact symbol makes the motion symbols unecessary.

Non-manual repetition

Use an additional nose to set apart a sequence of mouths as part of a non-manual marker. Repeat the nose to indicate repetition of the motion.

Guidelines

When possible, write each sign as one frame followed by one timeline.

For symmetrical signs, symmetrical frames may be easier to read than overly simplified frames.

Enter non-manual information first, and then the sign it is related to.

Experiment. Proofread to see how something looks and change it if you can make it better.

Have fun!