Comment 66 for bug 650498

Gerhard Großmann, you are comparing the pair ẞ/ß to normal uppercase/lowercase pairs such as K/k or F/f. However, it is not, as can be seen both in the Unicode Standard and in the proposal to add it to the Unicode Standard ( http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3227.pdf ). When you convert the small letter ‹k› into uppercase, you get the letter ‹K›. However, if you convert the small letter ‹ß› into uppercase, you get the letter sequence ‹SS›. The capital letter ‹K› is a regular letter of its own right, frequently used in isolation for all kinds of purposes. The capital letter ‹ẞ› is a special letter for special purposes. I have not seen any claim that it has ever been used in isolation. It must harmonize with other capital letters. There is not need at all why it should necessarily differ from the small letter ß.

Here is a sheet with different proposals from Andreas Strötzner: http://www.signographie.de/cms/upload/pdf/SIGNA9_SHARP_S_variants.pdf

While many of these forms are obviously way off, there is a number of proposals that might work in one font or another (compare the diverse proposals for different fonts on Andreas Strötzner's site: http://www.signographie.de/cms/front_content.php?idart=137 ).

Note that Andreas Strötzner's 2004 proposal ( http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2888.pdf ) has a prominent "Sans Serif style depiction" that looks just like the Sulzbacher form of the small ß.

The Ubuntu Font Family has a minimalistic appearance. I think it would harmonize best with something like the forms 3.g or 4.a of Andreas Strötzner's sheet. The playfull variance between straight lines, angles and rounded forms of 1.a, 1.b, 1.c seems less suited.