Ugly Duckling

[oshfdk]

...hope it was meant to be read easily if one had the knowledge, rather than sitting with a key and figuring out letters one by one to write down, that would seem like too much work to have to do to get a copy from it. Maybe you can't read it right off the page, but can quickly write what you see in such a way as it reveals itself immediately through whatever method is employed.

This is my main assumption too when it comes to possible ciphers. If there is actually meaningful text, to make it practical it should be easy to read and write. I'd even say one should be able to read it right off the page to make it worth it.

Of course, the original author(s) might not have thought about the practicality of reading the manuscript, but at least they should have started thinking about the practicality of writing it after a few dozen pages