> I assume you meant 2D there. I kind of get what you're saying.
If you were to remove the exact point of overlap in our cursive "e", we would have a 1D structure, even if a discontinuous one. And it would still be legible as an "e". This is what I mean by "darn close": infinitesimally so.
I haven't thought this through, but probabily every character in a legible sans serif point can be subject to this removal-of-overlaps process and still remain legible.
As for Japanese: katakana seems reducible to 1D by the same criteria; hiragana is certainly not, let alone ideograms (kanji/hanzi in chinese).
If you were to remove the exact point of overlap in our cursive "e", we would have a 1D structure, even if a discontinuous one. And it would still be legible as an "e". This is what I mean by "darn close": infinitesimally so.
I haven't thought this through, but probabily every character in a legible sans serif point can be subject to this removal-of-overlaps process and still remain legible.
As for Japanese: katakana seems reducible to 1D by the same criteria; hiragana is certainly not, let alone ideograms (kanji/hanzi in chinese).