Try it
Type English, and read it in Moon
The short forms live inside the font, as OpenType rules. They are set for English only, so text in another language keeps all its letters.
This box uses the real webfont, so it shows what your browser does with the rules. Everything else on this site is drawn from the font when the pages are built, so it looks the same in every browser. To see the full list of rules in your own browser, open the browser check.
How much to shorten
Moon books never agreed on this
Grade 2 shortens the most. The Moon Magazine of 1927 used fewer short forms. Grade 1 keeps only the two-letter pairs. Full spelling keeps every letter. In this font they are switches, not four different files.
Look at the last column. A raised page is large, and a finger reads it slowly, so each cell saved is real time saved for the reader. That is why short forms exist.
| Level | the thing that counts | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 2 | 14 | |
| 1927 books | 16 | |
| Grade 1 | 17 | |
| Full spelling | 21 |
Every word, ending and abbreviation that becomes one sign is listed on the short forms page.