Text set in the mu typography is text arranged in clusters of words called muglyphs. Mu is an acronym for meaning unit. A meaning unit is defined, in English, as a sentence or logical subdivision of a sentence. A muglyph is a meaning unit with the words centered about a single point in the center of the cluster, as shown in the examples below.

When text is set in interactive movable type, readers will have many choices in how the text is to be displayed. The reader can have the text displayed in either the conventional linear typography or in a one-line, two-line, three-line, four-line, or five-line mu format. The size specified by the reader is simply a limit to the number of lines that will be used in the muglyphs in a mutext set, e.g., text in a four-line mu format may include one-line, two-line, three-line, and four-line muglyphs.

With text set in interactive movable type, readers can have mutext presented in either static displays or as muvies. A muvie is a succession of muglyphs in the same place, as a movie is a succession of pictorial images in the same place. Readers will be able to have the text displayed as visual text, aural text, or simultext,the simultaneous visual and aural presentation of the text. Readers of interactive text will have many other choices in how the text is to be presented, most of which will be illustrated in The Mudoc Corporation's forthcoming computer presentation, The Coming Revolution in Writing and Reading,and are summarized in "What the Mudoc Software Does for Readers," a copy of which is now available on this website. The micronovel, 2002: An Odd Space Story, is a page of text set in the mu typography.

When reading text set in the conventional linear typography, adult readers of English average about four fixations per second. If a reader were to read the first and second examples above at four fixations per second (with no regressions) their rate would be 480 words per minute. At four fixations per second, the example in the three-line mu format would be read at a rate of 800 words per minute, the example in the four-line mu format at 1200 words per minute, and the five-line mu format example at 2400 words per minute.

Back to the Mudoc home page

©1997-2006, The Mudoc Corporation
If you would like to reprint or reproduce this article electronically or on paper, submit your request to The Mudoc Corporation by FAX, email, or letter (addresses are on this website's home page) describing how it will be used, how it will be reproduced and distributed, and the audience for whom it is intended.