Published: 21st May, 2026
Last edited: 3rd June, 2026
Created: 17th May, 2026
I created this script for creatures with talon-like digits, such as dragons and lizardfolk. It looks best in larger fonts as the characters are easier to differentiate and the details are more obvious.
The characters are written using three talons simultaneously (thumb, index, and middle digit). There are three possible marks: Point (using the tip of the talon), Nail (curling the talon inward to pressdown with what would be the fingernail), and Slash (drawing a line inward toward the palm with the tip of the talon).
I organized this along the standard alphabet, matching the characters by how easy I found them to make with my own hand to the standard use frequency of English, though I imagine this would work better as a character/symbolic script than strictly representing the alphabet.
With three marks per character and three types of strokes, we get 27 possible combinations for characters. Conveniently that means 1 per letter of the alphabet, with one left over. I added a single character that uses a fourth stroke, Turn (rotating the tip of the talon in a curve to the right), for all three strokes. This fourth stroke did not work well with the other three to make more combinations, but is easy to perform with all three digits. I mapped the 27th left over character and the Turn character to the Period and Comma keys for ease of typing, though I suggest that they not be used for those purposes.
I imagine this to be an expedient language to write, as each character can be written with a single action, allowing for a proficient writer to scribe multiple characters a second. This would be work better as a top-down script rather than a left-right, as the characters would be easier to distinguish in that orientation (and I also imagine it would be easier for a quadrupedal dragon to write in rows parallel to its body rather than perpendicular).
Outside of this as a written font, I also imagine that it could be used as a form of sign language, or even used on the body of another as a form of silent, tactile comunication.
For convenience, I mapped the 4 triple characters ( all Point, Nail, Slash, or Turn) to they !, @, #, and $ keys for convenience rather than purpose, should you want to meddle with it. You can copy and paste an part of a symbol into another character editor and it will keep the same position.