This discussion went on for several years in Germany (and, to a limited extent, in typography circles beyond). Virtually all imaginable alternatives were discussed, incl., but not limited to, ligatures of capital letters (SS or SZ), S or Z reversed, S or Z with diacritical marks. All were ultimately rejected for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that such a radical redesign would represent a break with at least 130 years of precedent (which can be observed at virtually every German cemetery).
David is right, of course: an ß that is simply enlarged to match the dimensions of capital letters looks just wrong. That does not mean, however, that it is impossible to design a proper capital letter that is beautiful, fits in well among its capital brethren, AND respects over a century of history. Furthermore, not all ẞ glyphs have to look exactly alike. Font designers have come up with quite a variety of shapes fitting the characteristics of their typefaces, while remaining easily recognizable. Bauhaus University in Jena recently commissioned a capital ẞ for its CD typeface, Linotype Syntax. **BAUHAUS** University! http://www.typografie.info/typowiki/index.php?title=Das_Bauhaus_setzt_auf_das_Versaleszett Who thinks that THAT ẞ is preposterous? More examples (many beautiful, some perhaps less so, but few or none that really stick out like the proverbial thumb) can be seen at http://www.typografie.info/typowiki/index.php?title=Versal-Eszett #Liste_von_Schriften_mit_Versal-Eszett -- Expansion: 'ẞ' LATIN CAPTIAL LETTER SHARP S (U+1E9E) https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/650498 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
