Getting Started With Multilingual Typography

Getting started with

MULTILINGUALTYPOGRAPHY

Getting started with “Multilingual Typography”

Multilingual Typography is field which does research on different languages with their writing systems and develops typographic technologies for them. Then it creates typefaces using these technologies and finally, decides, arranges,and layout these typefaces to create displays thatare appealingandpleasingto theintendedtargetaudience.”

With the help of different reports of non-English internet users, the booklet explores the growing multilingual culture around the world, and on the basis of Google fonts library data, it alsodiscussesthe scarcityof fontfamiliesonthe internetcomparedtotheir demand.

Next,itdiscusses theimportanceof multilingualtypographyandchallengesinits development.

As the booklet shifts towards India, it discusses its rich linguistic diversity and then uses KPMGGoogle research from 2017 to highlight the growth of Indian languages on the web as well as the lackofcontent inthoselanguages.

Next, the booklet explores the history of multilingual typography. In addition, it mentions some significant works and figures in multilingual typography. There follows a presentation of the work ofRay+Keshavan,anacclaimeddesignfirm. Lastly,the bookletconcludeswith10keylessons foraspirantmultilingualtypographers. The bookletis asmalltryto giveglimpseofhuge field‘The MultilingualTypography.’

Index

1. Typography- Recalling.

2. MultilingualTypography- Understanding .

3. Need???-Analysingdemandusingstatisticaldata.

4. Oh!Hurdles… - DiscussingmainChallenges.

5. Lotsof Gain-InvestigatingImportance.

6. Incredible India !- Glimpseofrich Linguistic landscape.

7. Incredible Journey !-TimelineofDevelopments.

8. The Great Job…s- 3 NotableWorksin21st century.

9. &…The Great Giant-Contributionof Ray+Keshavan.

10. The MultilingualTypographers- 4 Significant figures.

11. Be aMultilingualTypographer- 9 Keylessons.

12. Applied Multilingual Typography- Dayto DaylifeExamples.

13. Bibliography

o Typographymeanstheway wordslookoraredesignedtolook.

o Typography can be noticed everywhere from infographics to movie posters. It bringswordtolife.

o Typography is the careful selection of font style, appearance, and structure to enable the text to convey various emotional states such as security, joy, and excitement.

o Type design is a field that adjusts writing systems to complement typographic technology.

o Type designers do more than just draw beautiful letter shapes; they also optimize them for great output, with a typographic layout that simultaneously meets the requirementsoftarget media.

"MULTILINGUAL TYPOGRAPHY"

o Multilingual typography means the way words look or are designed to look in two or morelanguagesatonce.

o Multilingual typography can be noticed everywhere from infographics to movie posters.Itbringswordtolife in twoor more languagesatonce.

o Multilingual typography is the careful selection of font style, appearance, and structure to enable the text to convey various emotional states such as security, joy, andexcitement in twoor morelanguagesatonce.

o Multilingual Type design is a field that adjusts writing systems to complement typographictechnologyin twoor more languagesatonce.

o Multilingual Type Designers do more than just draw beautiful letter shapes; they also optimize them for great output, with a typographic layout that simultaneously meets the requirements of target media in two or more languagesatonce.

–

Brand adaptation to Arabic- Tide

– Brand adaptation to Arabic- Twix

– Multilingual Signageof Urban Culture (Hebrew, Arabic, English),Israel

– Multilingual Signageof Urban Culture, Chinese, Hongkong

Need???

o There aremorethan 7,100languages in the world,with Chinese,Spanish, andEnglish being the mostwidelyspoken.

o Even if,75% ofthe world’spopulationdoesn’t speak a wordofEnglish 57.7% ofdata onthe Internetand 50% oftechnicaland scientificperiodicalsare inEnglish.

– English – 56.9%, Russian 5.2% Spanish 4.6% French 4.2% All other languages are used in less than 0.1% of websites accordingto W3TechssurveyFebruary1, 2023.

o But, 20 years ago, English accounts for more than 80% of all online content and it declined to 55% today.

o As more countries are coming online, the amount of content in other languages is also increasing.

– Russians today have more than 61% and Germany and Japan have more than 85% of internet access.

– It's notable that online use of English increased just by 281 percent, Spanish 743 percent, Chinese 1,277 percent, Russian, 1,826 percent, and Arabic being highest by 2,501 percent from theyear 2001 to 2011.

– Also, a 2009 UNESCO report from 1996 to 2008, found a decline in English websites percentage on the internet from 75 percent in 1998 to 45 percent in 2005, and on the other side, non-English web pagesare rapidly expanding.

– According to a 2000 study, the international auxiliary language Esperanto ranked 40 out of all languages insearchenginequeries, also ranking 27out ofall languagesthat rely ontheLatin.

–

Data showingdemand and scarcityof websites in different languages

o The data presentedaboveclearlyshowsthe demandfornon-Englishlanguage contentis increasingand thatdirectlyaffectsthe demand fortypefaces.Butunfortunately,we don’t have ample typefacestosufficethisdemand.

o Let’s take an accountofthe Googlefontslibrarytounderstandthe scarcityofmultilingual typefaces.

– In Google fontslibrary out oftotal1482fontfamilieswefind-

– 1404 font families that support Latin and 1035 font families that support Latin extended. Similarly,

– 386 Vietnamese,

– 356 Cyrillic,

– 119Greek,

– 54 Devnagari,

– 52Japanese,

– 44 Hebrew,

– 42 Arabic,

– 31 Korean,

– 31 Thai,

– 27Khmer,

– 24 Telugu,

– 15Tamil,

– 13 Chinese,

– 12 Gujarati,

– 9 Bengali,

– 9 Kannada,

– 8 Malayalam,

– 8 Gurumukhi,

– 6 Sinhala,

– 4 Oriya,

– 3 Myanmar,

– and only 3 Tibetans..

o Accordingtothe datapresented above,onlyLatin(1404),Vietnamese (386), Cyrillic(356),and Greek(119) have enough Typefacesthatare morethan 100fontfamilies, whereasall othershave lessthan that.Chinese, which iswidely spoken,has only 13 fontfamilies,while Myanmar and Tibetan have onlythreefontfamiliesarchivedin thegooglefontslibrary.

o So, we cansayreflectingondesignpracticeinmultilingualcontextsisnot aluxury; “itis anecessityinafield.”

– Data showing scarcityof non-Latinfontsin the Google fontslibrary.

Some of the challenges lie in matching the typographic characters of one script with another, adaptingthescriptsto typographicsystemsandthe limitationsofcertainkindsof media.

What are your favourite, or most challenging, aspects of working with multilingual/multi-scripttype?

“The most challenging and enchanting aspects of working with multi-script type design are the translation and balance in design. I need to learn about different scripts. How is it written and what do different styles mean in their cultural context? Multi-script design is not an exception in China but a must-have. Many English words are being used in Chinese daily life. For example, Wi-Fi, NBA, CPU, 4G/5G, App… For a Chinese type designer, working well with the Latin design in a Chinese font should be a prerequisite, let alone with otherscripts.

- LiZhiqian DesignerandResearcher. (3type,Shanghai)

1.Complexlanguages-Languages witha lotsof charactersand complicatedformscanbe trickyto workwith.

“Telugu and Kannada scripts are similar in their written structure, but there are many small differences that can easily become lost in the details. For example, Kannada has a head stroke almost like Devanagari that connects every character. Telugu characters don’t connect; the head stroke is in the form of a tick mark. Their origins are from the same script, but they eventually evolved into two different languages and later into differentscripts.” saysRamakrishnaSaiteja,Indian type designer

2. Colonisation- The legacy of colonialism—with its imposed viewpoint equating Western culture with desirable modernity and superiority and degrading local cultures as backward and inferior—plays a part in inhibiting global scriptdevelopment.`

“Type design has a Eurocentric problem that it’s been slow to shed. We should be listening to divergent opinions, experimenting, and inviting more people from different regions and languages into the field as active collaborators.”says KsenyaSamarskaya(Samarskaya& Partners,Brooklyn)

3. Religion- In the slow development of type systems for certain languages religion plays a part.; for instance, Hebrewwasconfinedto biblicalandTalmudic scholarshipfortwo thousandyears

“Hebrew script has been employed for a variety of languages spoken by the Jewish diaspora, most notably by Yiddish and Ladino. As a result, its various typographic styles carry a strong associative connection to a specific use: either religious and scholarly or contemporary secular Hebrew, or another language altogether such as Yiddish. A designer of Hebrew type needs to be mindful of and sensitive to the cultural baggage that each style carries.”says Misha Beletsky (Typophiles,NewYork)

4. Education- To inform their practice, young designers need reliable sources of information, but the existing curriculumonlycoversoneortwo scripts.Multiculturalismishinderedby the inabilityto learnnewscripts.

“Education in type design, including at the University of Reading’s MA Typeface Design course, is Latin centric. We are not taught to design in Indian script. There might be a small workshop, but in formal education, we are onlytaught to designinEnglish,” saysPooja Saxena,a MATDgraduate.

Lots ofGain…

o A brand’s success depends on the social, cultural, and emotional connection it has with its audience. We subconsciously trust people who speak our native language. They remind us of home and safety. Striving to capture the essence of that trust and safety through native language is a great way to get people to love the brand. Thus Multilingual Typography helps by forging relationshipsbetweenbrandsandcustomers.

o Information is bound towitness more engagement if you advertise inmultiple languages since this ensures thatyouareexpanding youruserbase. Thus MultilingualTypography helps bywideningthe rangeof the audience.

o People take great pride in the languages they speak and understand. There is a significant emotional aspect when it comes to reading and consuming content in native languages and mothertongues. Thus MultilingualTypography helpsbydealingwithpsychologyofconsumers.

o All designers can benefit from the unique learning opportunities encountered by multilingual type designers—for instance, by looking at their native writing systems more analytically as amatter of routine. ThusMultilingualTypography helps byopeningnewlearningopportunities.

o Globalization has triggered greater interaction between countries and their cultures. Languages are often the first barrier to communicating with or relating to other cultures, and this affects inter- and intranational communication directly. Thus Multilingual Typography helps by enhancing communication acrosstheworld.

Incredible India!

o With1635rationalized mothertongues,over 850spokenlanguages,780mainlanguages,400 scripts, and officiallyrecognized 22 languages and 11scripts, Indiahas awideand vivid linguistic landscape. (People’s Linguistic Survey ofIndia 2013)

o Also, thesamewide and vivid scene is seenonthe IndianInternet.

– Indian languageinternetusershavegrownfrom 42 million in 2011to 234 million in 2016.

– In 2017, regional language Internet users were about 201 million with the CAGR(Compound annual growth rate) of Indian language internet users being 18 percent compared with just 3 percentfor Englishcontentconsumersaccordingtoan analysis by Google and KPMG.

– Currently, Tamil (42%) has the highest internet adoption levels followed by Hindi and Kannada among the Indian languageusers.

– Rural Indian language internet users have higher engagement levels (~ 530 minutes per week) thanUrban internetusers(~487 minutesper week)

– Chat applications and Digital entertainment have more than 90% adoption among Indian languageusers.

– Around 35%of Indian language internetusers access government services, classifieds, news and payment services exclusively online

– Reports indicatethatIndians have notjustthe highestnumber.

– Reports indicate that Indians have not just the highest number of DAUs(Daily Active Users), on WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn and Quora but with an average of 42 minutes — also the highestengagement time on WhatsApp.

o Yes, alarge setofnon-Englishsavvyusers are already online,and theyare gettinghungrier. But is ampleamountofcontent available?

– Numbers say that less than 10% of people in India speak English, and only about 4% are comfortable withthe language.Still, justless than 1% of onlinecontentis inIndian languages.

– 60% Indian language internet users stated limited language support and content to be the largest barrierfor adoption of onlineservices.

– 68% Internetusersconsiderlocal languagedigital contentto be more reliable than English.

– 88% of Indian language internet users are more likely to respond to a digital advertisement in their local languageas comparedto English.

– 44% Indian language internet users finding it difficult to comprehend product description and customerreviewsin English.

– WhatsApp has a 96% reach, and 61% of the Indian users primarily use their native languages to communicatewith it. For every 10 images sharedon WhatsApp, thereare 3 voice messages.

– OnlyFive percentof Google's ads in India are reportedlyin regionallanguages.

The spread of the internet and its usage in India has created a larger audience, and in turn, a larger market. Any company or brand that wants to go pan India requires multilingual communication. People who only focus on English end up catering to fewer cities in comparison. Indian typography’s need for multilingual matching fonts is increasingdaybyday.” SaarangKulkarni (Ek Type)

Incredible Journey !

1980sTheUnicodeera

1800sPrintingera

o The earliest Type-foundry was Nirnay Sagar Press in the year 1834 which used to publish Sanskrit texts and had produced several high-quality Devanagari typefaces.

1900sBeforeUnicode

o MS-DOS environments or the operative systems that preceded Mac OSX had standard formats (Postscript or TrueType) which have a set limit of just 256 characters. Thislimitedtypeface designinmostlanguages.

o Indic fonts were primarily designed by software developers who sold them as supporting products. The platform they used could not support more than 256 characters and so they had to fit all conjuncts within theglyph set.

o Fontslike AkrutiTypeface orShreeLipiTypeface (True type format) have existed for quite some time, but there is a distinctly visible difference in the character, weight, look, and feel of the typefaces and the current high-quality multilingual typography made by designers.

o 1981- The Xerox Star workstation (1981) used a multi-byte encoding that allowed it to support a single character set with potentially millions of characters. Using this, they implemented a word-processing system that supported several scripts, including Roman, Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese kana syllabaries. This work at Xerox was a direct inspirationfor Unicode.

o 1988- The Unicode Consortium(1991) with its objective to enable the exchange of multilingual documents among users made the Unicode Standard which is an information technology standard for the consistent representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The Unicode project was started in 1988 by Joe Becker (Xerox) and Lee Collins (Apple). The UnicodeStandardVersion1.0was publishedin October1991.

o 1997- OpenType format a new standard for digital fonts was developed by Microsoft and Adobe. OpenType had advantages as-

– Larger glyph limit(64k)

– Cross-platformsupport(WindowsandMac)

– Supportfor bothPostScriptType1 andTrueTypeoutlines

– Supportfor advancedtypographicfeatures

o 1999- Unicode version 3.0.0 allocated Indian languages in chapter 9 (South and Southeast Asian scripts) covering almost 15 different scriptsincludingnineIndianones.

o 2001- Mangal for Hindi and Latha for Tamil are the first known modern Indian fonts that supported two scripts were designed by RK Joshi, (Type designer, calligrapher, and professor at IIT Bombay). They were released in 2001 by Microsoft to support the Windows 2000 operating system.

– Immediatelyafter thatcustomfontswere developedbythe TiroTypeworksfor VodafoneHindi.

o 2009-FedraHindithe Devanagari fontwas released by IndianTypeFoundry.

–“Itwas Fedra Hindithatopenedupthe marketin 2009,”saidShivaNallaperumal.

–“Suddenly every font was looking better. The technological advancement in design during this periodalsoplayed a role.”HiteshMalviya, (Independenttype designer,Baroda)

– Several independent Indian designers and studios were being commissioned around this time to create open-source fonts to populate the Google Fonts library, an initiative to create a resource ofbasefonts.Theresultwas thedevelopmentofmorepopularIndic-typefamilies.

o 2013- Mukta by Ek Type was launched as first open-source font family that supported Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi,Bengali,Tamil,andLatin.

–“It being open-source ensured everyone could use it free, including students, which made it one ofthemostpopularinthe country,”saidGirishDalvi.

o 2018- Akhand Multiscript supports India's all 11 official writing scripts. Made by the Indian Type Foundry it supports Bengali, Devanagari, Latin, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Odia, Telugu, and Arabic. It is made both for the Indian scripts, as well as several others like Sinhala(SriLanka).

o Some Important Fonts with extended language support : Helvetica World, SST fonts, Restora, Okta Neue, Fedra Sans, Fedra Serif, Greta Sans, Greta Text,Lava,November,October, Ping,Skolar,WeafMono, Abraham,Ustina, Norsanda, Grotte,Omnes, Suisse,Dominicale

o SomeImportantIndianFontswithextendedlanguagesupport areAkhand and Kohinoor (Indian type Foundry) Mukta, Sama,Baloo, andAnek(Ektype).

“The computerindustry’sdesiretograbthe non-English marketplayedamajorrole in the revivaloftypographyinternationally.”

John Hudson

(Designerandexpertin multilingual environments)

– Akhand Multiscript supports India's all 11 official writing scripts.

The Great job…s

The Type Hybrid from Victionary is ground-breaking research in multilingual typography. It has a collection of 120 logotypes with synchronized multilingual details and 100 visual communication solutions from corporate branding to event communications and packaging designs. Each project demonstrates how designers from different parts of the world draw an international crowd with a hybrid language.

The Noto project of Google and Monotype comprises open-source fonts supporting 800 languages and 100 scripts. They worked together for more than five years, intending to develop a typeface family that encompasses all written languages and scripts, with a harmonious look and feel shared by each.

The Noto project serves the digital preservation of little-spoken or dead languages, to help enable global communications across borders, languages, cultures, and periods.

The Anek multi-script is award winning (the TDC Certificate of Typographic Excellence and the D&AD Graphite Pencil) variable font family. It supports Latin and 9 Indian languages. Its made in lockdown through a collaboration of 12 type designers working across 8 cities in India. The team consisted of Maithili Shingre, Yesha Goshar, Kailash Malviya, Aadarsh Rajan, Sulekha Rajkumar, Vaishnavi Murthy, Omkar Bhoir, Mrunmayee Ghaisas, Mahesh Sahu, Sarang Kulkarni, Noopur Datye, and Girish Dalvi.

&… The Great Giant.

o Ray+Keshavanis arenowned designfirmin India thefirmis contributingalot inmultilingual typographyhere aresomeimportantcontributions. Letsget inspired byit.

Ray+Keshavan has recently become a part of the Brand Union network(reknown International Group)

In this design, Brand Union, or BU, takes on different forms in all the regional scripts, representing the best of both worlds global and local.

The infographic depicts a bilingual timeline ofthe history of the widely-read Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran.While the communication needed tobe in English,it celebrated Hindi by depicting the dates in Devanagarithroughcalligraphy.

Ranga Shankara is one of India’s most prestigious theatres and their annual theatre festival is a much-awaited event.

The theme for the 2012 festival was ‘It’s Shakespeare’ . What made this event unique was the fact that the plays were performed in 4 Indian, and 4 International languages. The design highlighted typography drawn from vintage theatre posters in the variousscripts. Theresult is– Shakespeare Multilingual Poster.

Multilingual Typographyfor brands

The Multilingual Typographers.

Peter BiÍak is a multidisciplinary designer based in the Netherlands. He is the founder of Typotheque, which specializes in type design, typography, and branding. He started Typotheque in 1999, Dot Biak Dot in 2000 (with Stuart Bailey), Indian Type Foundry in 2009, Works That Work magazine in 2012, and Fontstand in 2015. He is awriter for numerous design magazines and frequently contributes writing and design to books and publications that include Print, Emigre, Eye (magazine), Items, typographica, Idea (magazine), Abitare, and Page. He is a member of AGI, (Alliance Graphique Internationale.) and lectures on his work internationally. He has designed several fonts including FF Eureka (published by Fontshop) and Fedra (published by his own typefoundryTypotheque).

R. K. Joshi was a calligrapher, typographer, artist, type-designer, and professor at IDC (IIT Bombay). He had passionately contributed a lifetime of work towards Indian typography and type design. He had studied at the J.J. School of applied arts. He brought the concept of multilingual ad campaigns to India. The first ever such campaign was the Ashok Jain Campaign. He had created some stunning logos including the Welcome Group, and Punjab National Bank. He designed several advertisements for Nerolac Paints and Crompton Greaves using Indian calligraphy, designed exclusive menus for the Taj Group, and stationery for Chimanlals.In 1966, he designed the first known modern Indian fonts Mangal(Hindi) and Latha(Tamil). He was associated with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) since 1976. He held several exhibitions like Aakar in Delhi, Prathama in Mumbai, and Akshara in Germany. He also wrote poems and undertook the first-ever calligraphic research in Indian manuscripts and epigraphic writings. He was awarded by Bukva-raz, an International Award for his ‘Raghu’ font. He also received a Lifetime Achievement award from Ad Club, in2004.He was one ofthe featuredspeakers inICOGRADA,India in2008.

Dr. Rathna Ramanathan, principal of Minus9 Design is an Indian typographer based in London. She is an international graphic design practitioner and researcher known for her expertise in intercultural communication design and typography, and non-mainstream and experimental publishing practices. She has taught design and typography in India and worked as the Subject Leader for Design and Interaction at Central St Martins. She became the Head of the Programme for Visual Communication in January 2015, before taking up the post of Dean of the RCA's School of Communication from 2018 until December 2020. She also holds the Country Delegate position for India in the Association Typographique Internationale. She also created children’s and adults' picture books in collaboration with writers. Titles have included In the Land of Punctuation (2014) and Anything but a Grabooberry (2003), both published by Tara Books. For which she received several international design awards.

Pascal Zoghbi is a Lebanese designer and educator with a Master of Design in Type & Media from KABK. He founded 29LT digital type foundry in 2013. Building on a cross-cultural approach, he has developed an outstanding collection of contemporary multiscript typefaces. Having moved to Madrid in 2018, he expanded 29LT’s focus on Arabic and Latin scripts to embrace a global multiscript approach that taps into other world scripts. Zoghbi taught for ten years at various design schools in Lebanon and the UAE. Internationally renowned, he has received prestigious design awards, such as TDC, Granshan, and AIGA, and was nominated for Jameel Prize 3. He also co-authored and edited the “Arabic Graffiti”book.

Be aMultilingual Typographer

o Research is the Key- Fiona Ross believes that best practice is built upon sound research.’ when designing type, we should be familiar with conventions, and a good grounding in the tools and the evolution of shapes throughout its history will provide greater insight into the specificities of the system.

According to Ross, ‘Whether a native reader or not, however, close observation of how harmonization and yet differentiation can be achieved within a new typeface design is affected by analyzing all modes of textual communication, whether past or current, and whether by hand with a pen, stylus or brush or using digital technology. In so doing, the designer can acquire a keen sense of the letterform proportions— and how far one can deviate from them; develop an eye to perceive which elements are key to letterform identification and which treatments can lead to ambiguities; and become sufficiently informed to judge which letterform features are shared and thus can be treated similarly to provide textual cohesion.’ Ross goes on to add that awareness of cultural sensitivities naturally forms an essential ingredienttothe designprocess.

o Find a common visual grammar- The key to creating good multilingual typography is to understand common visual grammar that matches the axis (tilt), modulation (variation in the width of strokes), and apertures (enclosed, interior spaces) of letters to create a consistent appearance while preserving thedominant features ofeach script.

o Legibility is the most important- Pilar Cano, a type designer at Dalton Maag, says “We should look at letters with other eyes, we should understand how we read and what is truly important to preserve legibility.”

o Try to get the essence of the typeface- When adapting the logotype from one script to another, it’simportanttoadapt the essence ofthe typefacerather than simplyreplicate itsform.

o Harmonize size and weight- When dealing with two unrelated typefaces, simply setting them at the same point size may not lead to them looking like the same size. To harmonize typefaces, they must be tested against each other at incrementally higher and lower sizes and weights until the bestcombination isfound.

o Make flexible layouts- A multiscript layout must accommodate the visual characteristics of all its scripts. These can range from directionality of text to vertical and horizontal proportions of letters. One way to achieve a flexible layout is to start with the most complex script first. Another approach, if possible, is to work with several scripts simultaneously so the layout is tailored for all their needs.

o Handle with the care- The adaptation of English content into a regional language must be accomplished while retaining the core characteristics of the original brand identity. Thoughtlessly using different fonts on products has a high risk of error, and design may look alien and audience willspot mistakesintheir nativelanguages quickly.

o Great going with native designers- “A native reader of a given script has an inherent eye for what looks ‘right’ and what is ‘readable’ and ‘appropriate.’ Depending on the availability of resourcesand opportunities, it can take a non-native designer quite some time to develop a similar sensibility. To accelerate the process, I’ve found it beneficial to collaborate with native designers who can identify areas of improvement in my work and help train my eye.” Aaron Bell (Principal of Seattlebased SajaTypeworks)

o EYE for Inspirations- Typography is a visual art form that is fueled by observation and analysis. Lastbut notleast,keep an‘Eye outfor Inspirations.’

Multilingual signageof urbanculture,(Kannada,Hindi and English)Bangalore city

Brucira,Mumbai haddesigned movie posters in different Indianlanguagesfor Disney + Hotstar

Multilingual

One typeface, 93 languagesfor Sony.

Bibliography (References used)

• https://www.slideshare.net/infodesignlab/bilingual-typographyhong-kong-case-studies

• https://www.brucira.com/case-studies/disney+-hotstar/

• https://type-01.com/li-zhiqian-on-multilingual-design-and-culturalresearch/

• https://wwwbehancenet/gallery/48431571/MULTILINGUALTYPOGRAPHY-LETTERING-FOR-LOGO-DESIGN

• https://blogbruciracom/the-importance-of-multilingualtypography-in-india/

• Akhand Multiscriptnow supportsall of India’s official scripts

• https://wwwcommartscom/columns/multilingual-scripts

• https://homegrowncoin/homegrown-voices/the-changing-face-oftypography-in-india

• https://wwwzilliondesignscom/blog/20-multilingual-typographydesigners/

• https://wwwacademiaedu/9063635/The_Value_of_Typography_in_

a_Global_Multilingual_World

• https://www.typecamp.org/instructors/rathna-ramanathan/

• Wehaven’t yet builtthe Indian internet

• The riseof India’s typography community - The Hindu

• Indian languages didn’t have enough fonts. Now, some men and women are fixing that(scroll.in)

• How Multilingual Typography Can BoostYour Business- Blog | Brucira

• Unicode Wikipedia

• https://www.english.com/blog/english-language-internet/

• https://lemongrad.com/english-language-statistics/

• https://wwwjetirorg/papers/JETIR2110480pdf

• https://fontsgooglecom/?subset=chinesesimplified&notoscript=Hans

• https://fontsgooglecom/?subset=hebrew&notoscript=Hebr

• https://fontsgooglecom/?subset=malayalam&notoscript=Mlym

• https://enwikipediaorg/wiki/Languages_used_on_the_Internet

• https://enwikipediaorg/wiki/Xerox_Star

• https://line25com/fonts/multilingual-fonts/

• https://victionarycom/products/typehybrid?variant=36439634084002

• https://designgoogle/library/anek-multiscript/

• https://peterbilakcom/

• https://enwikipediaorg/wiki/R_K_Joshi

• https://www.29lt.com/designer/pascal-zoghbi/

• https://www.youtube.com/@Pascal.Zoghbi_29LT/about

• https://www.type-together.com/multiscript-typography-guide

• Sblum-Typographyday2015.pdf(typoday.in)

• david-brezina-typographyday2012pdf(typodayin)

Multilingual Typography is field which does research on different languages and theirwritingsystems and developstypographic technologies for them. Then it creates typefaces using these technologies and finally, decides, arranges, and layout these typefaces to create displays that areappealing and pleasing totheintended target audience.”

Non-English internet users are growing rapidly and thus demand of content is also increasing. In this background demand of non English typefaces is also increasing but unfortunatelywedon’t haveenough typefacesavailabletosufficethisdemand.

Development of Multilingual typography can benefit at large helps by forging relationships betweenbrands and customers, helps bywidening the range of the audience, helps by dealing with the psychology of consumers, helps by opening new learning opportunities and most importantly helpsbyenhancing communication acrosstheworld.

Some of the challenges in development of Multilingual Typography are Colonisation, Religion, Education, Complex and complicated languages andscripts.

India has rich linguistic landscape with 1635 rationalized mother tongues, over 850 spoken languages, 780 main languages, 400 scripts, and officially recognized 22 languages and 11 scripts. Also it is seen massive growth in Indian language users on internet in these years. This increased direct demand ofcontentin Indian languages and soincreasesneedof Indian languageTypefaces.

Indian languages typefaces were developing since 19th century printing era but got drift in 1999 when Unicode 3.0.0 included Indian languages in it. In 2001 we got first known modern font in Indian scripts Mangal Hindi and Latha Tamil both designed by R.K Joshi wellknown typographer in India. 2009Fedra Hindi,Indian Typefoundryhad revolutionary impact on thecharacter, weight, look,and feelof thetypefaces. In2013 Mukta (Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Bengali, Tamil, and Latin) by Ek type a open source font become favorite of all due to its free access to every Indians.

In 2018 Akhand multiscript, Indian Type Foundry followed by Kohinoor(Indian Type Foundry) become 2nd Indian multiscript supporting India’s all 11official scripts.

This development takes us to present day to Type Hybrid Book by Vicitionary (Collection of 120 logotype and 100 visual communication solutions in Multilingual Typography) ; Noto project by Google and Monotype (open-source fonts supporting 800 languages and 100 scripts), Anek Multiscript by Ek type (Award winning variable font created by 12 type designers working across 8 cities in India in lockdown) and huge contribution of BrandUnion|Ray+Keshvan.Theseare somenotable worksin Multilingual typography.

All credit for this development goes to typographers who had devoted their life for Multilingual Typography some of them are R. K. Joshi(IDC,Bombay), Dr. Rathna Ramanathan(Minus9 Design, Chennai), PascalZoghbi(29LT,Madrid), and PeterBiľak(Typotheque,Hague).

And lastly to become typographer like them we should follow 9 key lessons 1) Do thorough research of cultures, history and other important aspects related to scripts. 2) Try to get the essence of the typeface 3) Legibility is the most important key 4) Find a common visual grammar 5) Make flexible layouts taking care of all writing systems 6) Harmonize size and weight of scripts 7) Handle logotypes thoughtfully with care to retain itsoriginality 8) Takehelp fromnative designers 9) and last but notleast Always look outforInspirations related -

“Multilingual Typography.”

“The spread of the internet and its usage in India has created a larger audience, and in turn, a larger market. Any company or brand that wants to go pan India requires multilingual communication. People who only focus on English end up catering to fewer cities in comparison. Indian typography’s need for multilingual matching fonts is increasingdaybyday.”

SaarangKulkarni(Ek Type)