> One thing that doesn't get mentioned often is that the West had a "simpler" alphabet of 26 characters, 10 numbers, and a few punctuation marks (~20). Really?

> One thing that doesn't get mentioned often is that the West had a "simpler" alphabet of 26 characters, 10 numbers, and a few punctuation marks (~20). Really? I feel like this is usually used as the main - sometimes only - argument for why moveable type took off in the West. If you look at the Wikipedia for moveable type[1], the simpler alphabet is listed in the article summary at the top of the page as a reason for why Gutenberg's printing press was so successful. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type