Nail Script

The Nail Script was created by Matthew DeBlock and is designed to be written with nails and a hammer as opposed to pen, pencil or engraving. The script can also be written with standard writing tools, but the true efficiency and unique characteristics of the script don't come into play unless it is written with nails. It is meant for special application and novelty.

The main advantages specific to writing with nails are:

Depth Layers - Unlike writing with a pen or pencil, when you lay one nail on top of another nail you can see which is above and which is below. This means the actual sequence in which the "lines" were drawn is available. Unlike with a pen, if you were to draw an X for example you would not know which line was drawn first and which second. With nails it would be obvious because the first nail would be underneath the second nail.
Directional - The head of a bent nail is very distinct from the entry point without a head, making the direction of "line" also visible. Something very hard to identify with lines drawn by pen or pencil.
Durable - Iron nails are strong, and will last significant weathering, unlike inks and paints. Lower quality nails will rust if exposed to the elements, but even this will likely outlast any form of ink/paint based writing.
Readily available. Nails and hammers are universally available and cheap. If you wanted to leave text of a similar "permanence" special tools and materials would be required for standard scripts.

Notable features

Type of writing system: alphabet
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines.
Used to write: English

NailScript for English - Single Row Version

Nails are set in the wood then bent down, there are 8 possible orientations, and an extra nail can be pounded fully down to act as a "dot" which can be placed at the nail head or at the "base" (where the nail enters the wood).

Sample texts in Nail Script - Single Row Version

This example spaces each letter individually.

Sample text in the Nail Script - Single Row Version

Letters can be "sucked together tightly" to save space in many places.

Sample text in the Nail Script - Single Row Version with the letters sucked together

The real fun begins when you start to allow nails to be laid over top of other nails.

Sample text in the Nail Script - Single Row Version with the letters overlapping

In this example some nails are overlapped. There are white outlines around each nail so if you look closely you can see which is below and which is above. Not all nails can overlap all other nails of course, 2 vertical nails of course are difficult, if not impossible, to overlap. In this example overlaps are only used when it preserves the left-right order (the lower nail is also always the left-most nail.)

Rats Nest style

Sample text in the Nail Script - Rats Nest style

In this example the nails are overlapped almost as much as possible. The sequence of letters is primarily preserved by the layers. Previous letters are underneath following letters.

Transliteration

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

NailScript for English - Double Row Version

In this version of NailScript there is an imaginary line dividing the board horizontally into 2 rows. If you find it difficult to read or write without seeing the line, you can easily grab something long and straight and score a line down the board, using a nail or anything sharp, so you can see the mid-line as you hammer in the nail.

The mid-line crosses through the middle of the circles. Unlike the Single row version, the double row version splits letters between the 2 rows.

The "dot" on the center line is used as a "space character", which allows the words to be drawn slightly tighter together (space between words is smaller) than the single row version. Dots are not used in the middle because there are more possibilities available in the double row version, and by omitting dotted horizontal lines the letters can be tightened up together more without risk of ambiguity. It would be hard to draw multiple horizontal stokes together and still be clear which a dot belongs to.

Sample texts in Nail Script - Double Row Version

This example spaces each letter individually.

Sample text in the Nail Script - Double Row Version

Next you can allow letters to exist sharing space vertically. To do this I prefer to use the rule "read left to right, and when there are letters in both the top and bottom rows, read top first, then read bottom, then move again to the right."

This means you can only "piled up", using both rows simultaneously, roughly one quarter of the time (on average). "Left Top + Right bottom" can be merged, but "Left Bottom + Right Top Cannot", needless to say "Top+Top" and "Bottom+Bottom" cannot be merged in this way either

In the next picture you will see the above text again using this simple "pile-up" rule.

Sample text in the Nail Script - Double Row Version

Further information about Nail Script can also be found at:
http://dscript.org/nailscript.pdf

Also by Matthew DeBlock

Dscript, Cscript (PDF)

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