Ronald Kingsley Read, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetRonald Kingsley Read
Inventor of writing systems
Date of Birth: 
About Ronald Kingsley Read
- Ronald Kingsley Read (February 19, 1887 – February 1975) was one of four contestants chosen to share the prize money for the design of the Shavian alphabet, a completely new alphabet intended for writing English.
- He was later appointed sole responsible designer of the alphabet. In 1966, after extensive testing of Shavian with English speakers from around the world, Read introduced Quikscript, a revised form of his Shavian alphabet.
- Quikscript, also known as the "Read alphabet", has more ligatures than Shavian, which makes it easier to write by hand.
- Its appearance is more cursive than Shavian. A few days before his death, he completed a new alphabet called Soundspell (now Readspel), based, probably for increased chances of popular acceptance, on the Latin script. In the early 1960s Read also produced the quarterly journal Shaw-script, which was printed using the Shavian alphabet.
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