Notes on multi-script
typeface design
Gerry Leonidas
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Introduction:
A comment on the current state of
typeface design for non-Latin scripts,
summarising the points made on
“Going Global” [next four slides]
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1. two and a half steps
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1) Providing basic,
but correct, support
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2) Covering mainstream
genre requirements
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3) Innovating in typeface design
to support rich typography
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2. Multi-script or Other-script?
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Distinguishing between designing
typefaces for documents integrating
more than one script, and designing
typefaces for scripts that the designer
is unfamiliar with, for overwhelmingly
single-script use.
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One script:
Typographic adaptation
to typesetting processes
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In the case of new single-script
typefaces, the main challenge has been
the adaptation of script complexity to
the limitations of type-making and
typesetting systems developed for
another context.
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Risk:
research is time-consuming, costly,
difficult, or even impossible
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Commercial pressures (time allocation,
budget limits, lack of sufficient clarity at
the project definition) and the variable
access to trustworthy information and
feedback jeopardise projects.
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Multi-script:
Parallel texts or embedded
words and sentences
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Distinguishing between one column
of a script next to, or opposite to, one
in another script (e.g. in a translated
text) and embedded use (e.g. a word
or a phrase in one script within
sentences in another).
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Risk:
the assumptions of the dominant
script determine design decisions
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Features from the original script can be
shoehorned onto the “secondary” script.
These may include vertical proportions,
stroke dimensions and modulation,
terminal formation, handling of
punctuation, and so on.
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Latinisation
and / or
Typographicisation*
!
!
* invented word
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Latinisation: the design of a non-Latin
script using design patterns and even
specific formal elements from the Latin,
usually with a mismatch between the
typographic and stylistic connotations
of the two scripts (e.g. “modern” ).
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Typographicisation: the adaptation of
a script that has forms and behaviour
determined by written forms to the
constraints of a type-making and
typesetting system. This script may
often be used on its own.
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3 Design challenges
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Type-making and typesetting tools
Legacy “typewriter” fonts
Latin-centric terminology
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Limitations examples: character sets,
many-to-many substitutions.
“Typewriter” fonts: from actual type-
writers, to early digital. Of marginal
formal quality, developed under extreme
limitations, but still influential.
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Character set determinism
Algorithmic line-level behaviours
Changes within a community’s
memory
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Character sets change over time, across
documents, and communities. The
“definitive” versions might not exist.
Intensely context-dependent
substitutions.
Changes to a script across generations.
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Western type-family compositions
Input conventions
Minority scripts, dialects, and
regional “parallel identities”
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Type family conventions for weight /
width / style from Latin typefaces that
do not transfer easily to another script.
Communities sharing a complex script,
but not a language, an orthography, or
international visibility.
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Stroke modulation and proportions
Range of curves and counters
Range of in/out points
Number of continuous strokes
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The variability of radii and counter
shapes are most likely more complex
than in the Latin; stroke dimensions
tend to respond to these factors.
Transferring the logic of the ductus into
the typographic forms.
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Parity with existing styles
Opportunities for expansion
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The fewer the existing relevant typefaces
for a script, the more pressure for new
ones to relate to them.
Conventional ways to expand a type
family may not apply to a non-Latin
script, requiring innovative thinking.
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The cultural moment!
Modernity vs. convention
Variety and differentiation
Identity and exploration
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Typefaces respond to and reflect the
range from language preservation to
mainstream textual communication,
to imported / novel genres that express
aspirational classes and generational
identification.
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p.s. Where’s the intelligence?
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As a typeface project develops, how do
we capture the design decisions and the
knowledge generated? And how is this
built upon across projects? Our current
workflows aim at final outputs, not
capturing and analysing processes.
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N.b.
No part of this discussion
needs to stem from the
technology of type-making.
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We lack a clear, shared language
to discuss typeface design decisions
for shapes and behaviours that is
independent of the means of making
fonts.