GL5  Spaces or Lack Thereof The space character takes up a lot of space. Spaces between words impose unnecessary character inflation to normal text. Eliminating these informationally poor characters can dramatically improve compression ratios. GL5 uses capitalization and punctuation as word boundary flags. This requires that lower-case single letter GL5 words be preceeded by punctuation character or a space—the only use of this character! All multi-character words MUST begin with a capital letter. RULES: If initial text (after punctuation or space) begins with: 1. lower case letter/digit then that letter and all following lower case letters or digits are treated as single letter words until an upper case letter occurs. 2. upper case letter and if next letter is:            a. upper case letter: then that letter is treated as a single letter word. b. lower case letter/digit: then that letter and all following lower case letters or digits are pronouncedphonetically as part of a multi-letter word until an upper case letter, space, or punctuation character. Digits are considered lower case letters and have no upper case equivalents. 1. When a digit follows a lower case single letter word it is treated as a single letter word. 2. When a digit follows an upper case letter it is pronounced phonetically as part of a multi-letter word. 3. When a digit is preceded by a # character, it is treated as an ordinal number (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) 4. When a digit is followed by a – character, it is read as a numeric value. There you have it. Now let's see how it works. 362 characters including spaces 626 characters including spaces 4 simfniOrkstra,4MosKmpl3t,4Mos Sumpc2s nMosVrstl vLM3d2mz v m7zklSpre5n,hKm t itsPreznVrcwosti bySloDgriz,nzZMc 4Prqduk vEvlw5nZ AU4rManfs85n v4TonlQrt.L4o iM8U gMCz n4F7cr,4Orkstra vtD zaDefnitli nKerfliUr8njdQnsqmblKmpryz' 4Mos Knj3n2lReps v4-4GNstrmntlFamliz(str'z, whdwinz,bras nPrku5n)r8njd nSek5nz; frst,kord' t 4rPcR8nj wn4Famli,n4Manr va Kwyr vH7mnV9sz.       The symphony orchestra, the most complete, the most sumptuous and most versatile of all mediums of musical expression, has come to its present virtuosity by slow degrees and is as much the product of evolution as any other manifestation of the tonal art. Although it may undergo many changes in the future, the orchestra of today is a definitely and carefully arranged ensemble comprising the most congenial representatives of the four great instrumental families (strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion) arranged in section; first, according to their pitch-range within the family, in the manner of a choir of human voices. That's over 40% reduction in text size. OK, now let's check out some comparisons with other spelling systems.