Main icon catalogue

Main features and highlights of the catalogue

Medu Netcher is not only a bunch of icons. Our goal with the present application is to bring the egyptian hieroglyphic writing system to a more comprehensible, organic, humanized and less dependant of the arbitrary specifications of the Manuel de Codage by approaching the real writing composition the ancient egyptians used.

Even if we are aware that it's an impossible mission to pretend to emulate from programmatic methods a fully subjective human writing mode (that also is highly affected by the surrouding elements such as graphical scenes, the support size and edges, etc), at least we would like to make the best effort to reach part of it.

And to do so we need to first change the way the actual hieroglyphic icons are generated and used. That's why our catalogue was created following some new methodologies and providing new tools that will try to achieve that goal when you write within our application. Here you have some of them.

Relational icons

Two icons (G1 and G1A) and its common icons (in color).

The Medu Netcher catalogue is a relational one (i.e. many of its icons are made of or contain other icons of the catalogue). A linked icon remains as it is, so in case it is modified, all the icons that contain it will be automatically updated.

Grid-based icons

10-unit grid used to create the icon G1.

All the icons in the Medu Netcher catalogue were created atop a 10-unit grid in maximum height to get consistency along the whole application (this affects the icons themselves, but the written text blocks as well).

Dynamic and variable icons

Generation of the icon G56 through G1 and the dynamic D36

Some icons in the catalogue were created with dynamical parameters, so they can adapt better to the grid within a text without deforming, as ancient egyptians did. You will identify them in the catalogue with the Dynamic label.

Silhouette icons

Lined and silhouette versions of icon G1.

Ancient egyptians used the silhouette version from the Pyramid Texts to the Middle Kingdom noble's wooden coffins and Theban tombs, as well as many other artifacts. The first egyptological papers used it as well. So this display version was a must-have in Medu Netcher as well.

Customizable SVG icons

Examples of possible icon configurations through CSS.

Since the icons are generated with Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) technology, they can be modified into many levels with such small efford. You can see all the display options (such as size, colors, stroke widths, etc) under Settings section.

Other useful icon catalogues

The ancient egyptians didn't made a categorized catalogue of their icons (as we do have today following the Gardiner List). On the other hand, the icons were by meaning. With these secondary catalogues we try to aim these meant-to-be aggrupations other than Gardiner's.

Phonetical catalogue

A catalogue where only the icons with phonetical values are displayed and categorized by alphabetical order.

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