Devanagari Typeface Design - NID Graduation Project

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Saurav Harsh — Graduation project — Communication Desgin — 2021

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Mr. Prakash Moorthy Mr. Reuben Jerome D’silva

Academic Chairman, St Joseph college of communications, MG University, Changanaserry Kerala.

IDEO, Interaction Designer, Munich Area, Germany.

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Originality statement I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and it contains no full or substantial copy or previously published material, or it does not even contain substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or final graduation of any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in this graduation project.

Moreover I also declare that none of the concepts are borrowed or copied without due acknowledgement. I further declare that the intellectual content of this graduation project is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.

This graduation project (or part of it) was not and will not be submitted as assessed work in any other academic course.

Student name in full: Signature: Date:

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Copyright statement I hereby grant the National Institute of Design, Haryana the right to archive and to make available my graduation project/thesis/ dissertation in whole or part in the Institute’s Library in all forms of media, now or hereafter known, subject to the provision of the Copyright Act. I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my document or I have obtained permission to use copyright material.

Student name in full: Signature: Date:

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Acknowledgements Finishing an entire self-sponsored project in the middle of a pandemic was not an easy task. Separated by distance and various lockdowns, the project was made possible only with the help of my family, friends, faculties & the design community.

I’d like to take the opportunity and thank Mr Abhijith KR, for giving me his time and providing key insights and feedback on the typeface. I’ve been fortunate to stay in touch with him even in this pandemic.

I would like to thank Mr Ravikumar Parmar, for being my guide, helping me throughout the project and driving me in the right direction. Thanks to Mr Bharat Parmar for providing his support as our coordinator and providing valuable insights on the project.

Thanks to the Typostammtisch community for holding various type meets and critique sessions and allowing young designers to dwell deeper into the world of type design.

Thanks to my friends & batchmates Ayush Saxena, Daneeshah Desilva, Harshit Daspa, James Thottan, Poorvi Sethi, Rohit Hansraj, Sangeetha Ramanath, Swati Mishra and others whom I nudged several times for reviews which helped me not just in terms of the result but also in keeping me motivated and driven. Their support at different stages of the project helped me move forward with better clarity and understanding each time.

I would like to thank everyone who directly or indirectly has helped me and contributed to the project.

Design is a field better not done in isolation.

Lastly, I’d like to thank my Dada (grandma), Mumma, Papa and Gaurav bhaiya, for being there with me at all times. None of this would have been possible if they had not been there, guiding and supporting me in their own ways.

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“Words have meaning and type has spirit and the combination is spectacular” – Paula Scher

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Abstract This project is focused on the process of designing a Humanist Devanagari typeface based upon traditional calligraphic structures with modulated strokes and open counters. The typeface has been designed to work with both screen and print media and aims to reflect the roots from which it has emerged.

It tries to tackle the issues with existing typefaces and recognise the lack of Indic fonts and contribute in whatever way it can.

This document documents the entire process followed to design the typeface and provides resources and material to inspire other aspiring type designers who wish to pursue a Devanagari project on their own.

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Contents 1.

Preface Why a typeface project?

Why a Devanagari typeface?

12 14

Project Overview Approach Area of research Limitations & Possibilities Timeline

16 18 19 20

Understanding Devanagari Devanagari script Traditional calligraphy Anatomy and Terminology Type classification

22 28 32 36

4.

Primary Research Analysing typefaces Problems with existing typefaces Current media User research Analysis

38 40 46 50 58 61

5.

Brief

62

2.

3.

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6.

Design Development Ideation & Explorations Root letters Refinement

66 68 73 74

7.

Constructing Vectors

82

8.

Font software Spacing and Kerning Ligatures

88 92 94

9.

Final Typeface Bold weight

96 110

10. Conclusion & Scope

116

11. Bibliography Citations References Resources

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Preface Why a typeface project?

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The world is filled with all sorts of different typefaces. Wherever you go, you see typefaces, letters, and alphabets. You’re always surrounded by them. They come in all shapes and sizes and we make use of them in whatever manner we can.

Some people have a certain set of typefaces that they choose to work with when designing anything and prefer to stick with them. And a lot of these typefaces are indeed very well designed, let it be in terms of legibility or clarity or the visual aesthetic that they aim to produce. Then why is it that new typefaces are still emerging each day and why do we still need a new typeface?

The purpose of typography is not to just convey information.

While efficiency is a key part of communicating, it’s not the only thing that we need to design something brilliant. Because it’d get very boring otherwise.

Typefaces are intended to solve problems. Problems that we don’t even know exist but have needed a solution for a long time.

You wish to convey an emotion, an attribute, send a clear message, alert someone, please someone.

You look at who you want to convey these things to, what environment they will be in, and what sort of effects the type would have because of the things that surround it. Does it suit the culture you’re in? Does it have a negative or positive connotation? Is it linked directly to something?

All these things, once put into permutations and combinations, will make us realise why we need a new typeface. Typefaces are intended to solve problems and we have a new problem every single day. [a]

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y When you’re taking a script and turning it into a typeface, it’s important that the origins and the roots of that script stay intact.[b] Unless, of course, your aim is something very different and you’re trying to be experimental with intent.

Devanagari calligraphy & lettering is very rich in heritage and culture.

You can still identify the traces of its evolution. But when we take the same thing and put it into a digital media, we encounter a lot of serious problems.

Why a devanagari typeface?

Devanagari or any other Indic script is tedious to work on when compared to Latin, structurally.

And the limited, scarce resources that are there on the subject, makes it even harder for one to guide himself in that direction. u As a result, there’s a huge scarcity of Indic typefaces for us to use.[c]

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To get an overview of the situation, we can look at a few well-known type distributors. Adobe fonts have around 2.5k fonts available, out of which only 9 are Devanagari. Google fonts, while an improvement, have only 4% of the fonts in Devanagari.

If we look at fonts.com where you can browse through tons of fonts from different foundries and companies, just 2.5% of the fonts are Devanagari consisting of just 9 families. These numbers are already so small that when we compare them to the 14% of the world population that uses Devanagari, the number is almost negligible. u The prevalence and preference for English over a wide range of media has resulted in a significant cultural shift in our society, which is due to a lack of the muchneeded Indic fonts, which has been and continues to be a problem.

At present, we’re certainly at a better stage than where we were a decade ago. There has been a noticeable amount of growth for Indic scripts which we’re seeing now and a big part of this development is because of custom design projects, multilingual brandings and growth of local businesses. It’s a good thing, but it again limits the amount of experimentation and exploration a designer can do while designing his typefaces and being more original and conceptual with them. r And while there are a lot of well-designed Devanagari typefaces with us, a lot of existing ones have issues that need to be tackled while designing new ones.

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Project Overview

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Approach

The process started with secondary research as in any other design project. The research was focused on the need for typefaces, the Devanagari script and calligraphy and its graphic elements necessary to design a typeface.

The research also included going through the existing media that revolved around the script to stay aware of the present scenarios as well as native reader insights.

After analysing the insights, an initial brief was made which, during the course of the project, went through a couple of changes to adjust to the new insights as and when they appeared.

After getting an idea of the brief, the ideation or "practice" stage started. During this ideation, other existing typefaces were also analysed to see how they worked. After a good understanding of the script, explorations began.

An important step was deciding what characteristics and letterforms should be chosen to be taken ahead of and worked up.

Later stages involved primary research aligned with the brief with existing typefaces and refinement of the letterforms in different ways.

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Area of research Before beginning the project, it was important to know the field that you’re trying to enter to make more knowledgeable decisions and push the efforts in the right direction. The research helped in answering the questions that arose regarding Devanagari typefaces.

• Difference between Devanagari and Latin • Understanding the script, structure, traditional calligraphy and anatomy • Developing a typeface with the help of font software • Difference between a print font and a web font • Current media usage and existing typefaces

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Limitations & Possibilities If not the most, one of the most challenging problems to tackle was to overcome the pandemic. It limited the interaction that I earlier had with my peers, faculties and friends. Designing a typeface involves a back and forth process and hundreds of tests and refinement stages.

Since no typeface is perfect (hence the need for new typefaces even now), the resulting typeface can also be worked upon and refined and expanded further as per the needs of its users.

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Timeline Drawing the basic characters Idea�on/ Explora�on

Feedback & Digi�sa�on Studying exis�ng typefaces

Secondary Research

3rd

Brief/ Primary Research

17th

Week 1

Explora�ons

Week 3

Week 6

Project Registera�on

May 2021

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June 2021

July 2021

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Documenta�on and further refinement

Ongoing refinement

Week 10

August, 2021

Font So�ware

Week 12

Week 14

September 2021

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Understanding

देवनागरी

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The script

The script takes its name from the two words 'Deva' and 'Nagri' roughly translated as 'script of the divine city' and is a descendent of the ancient Brahmi script. Its modern form was in use by about 1000 CE. Currently, the script is widely used across India and Nepal for writing Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi, Konkani, Bora, Nepali and more than 36 other languages. [1] It is the 4th most widely used writing system in the world, with a population of more than 600 million people all around the globe.

Devanagari follows the abiguida/alphasyllabary writing system, a combination of syllabary and alphabet. Written from left to right, with the Shiro Rekha as its most iconic feature.

It has 47 primary characters that include 14 vowels and 33 consonants. The consonants carry inherent vowels which can be altered or muted with the use of diacritics or matra. The vowels can also be written as independent letters or by using matra. There are also instances when consonants occur together and are used as conjuncts.

Chitra Gohad at IDC, IIT Bombay takes an in-depth look at Devanagari in her article, "History of Devanagari Letterforms" [2]

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Devanagari characters, broadly classified into consonants & vowels.

Consonants

क झ थ म स

ख ञ द य ह

ग ट ध र क्ष

घ ठ न ल त्र

ङ ड प ळ ज्ञ

च ढ फ व

छ ण ब श

ज त भ ष

Independent Vowels

ऄ ऋ

अ ऌ

आ ऍ

इ ऎ

ई ऐ

उ ऑ

ऊ ओ

ए औ

Additional Consonants

क़ फ़

ख़ य़

ग़ ऱ

ज़ ऴ

ड़ ॺ

ढ़ ॹ

ऩ ॸ

Additional Vowels

ॠ

ॡ

ॲ

ॳ

ॴ

ॵ

ॶ

Implosives

ॻ

ॼ

ॾ

ॿ

Punctuations

॰

।

॥

१ ४

२ ५

७

८

९

Sign

Numbers

ॐ ० ३

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६

ॷ

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क

ख

ग

घ

ङ

Velar

च

छ

ज

झ

ञ

Palatal

ट

ठ

ड

ढ

ण

Cerebral

त

थ

द

ध

न

Dental

प

फ

ब

भ

म

Labial

य

र

ल

व

श

ष

स

Differentiated on the basis of speech

Half -Vowels Spirants

ह

Empty aspirant

आ उ ऊ ओ औ अः अ ई झ ङ ड इ र स श ख ब व ळ क

'Root letters' and 'Derived letters' based on similarities between the structures

Graphical analysis

ग म न भ ज च ट ढ ठ क्ष द घ छ ध य थ प फ ण ष ञ ए त ल ह ज्ञ

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The Devanagari script that we write today, has developed from ancient writing systems which we can still observe and analyse from the old manuscripts.

How these were written is way different from what is being done today.

It's important to realise the origins of something before adapting it for the modern world.

From the ancient Brahmi script to the old manuscripts in the Bharati script, we turn towards the Gupta script to the Nagari script and then to the Devanagari that we know of.

For understanding the proportions and anatomy of the Devanagari letterforms, we can take help from traditional calligraphy, which is the basis of their proportions and anatomy.

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Maitrayaniya Upanishad

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Traditional Calligraphy

Saurav Harsh — Graduation project — Communication Desgin — 2021 Aksharaya Calligraphy Manual

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Devanagari's traditional roots in calligraphy are still very much alive, even if not translated well over the digital medium. It follows certain guidelines and practices that ensure the integrity of the script.

A reed or bamboo pen is the most basic tool used to write Devanagari, as they are easy to shape and mould and strong enough to write. The pen is sliced diagonally and the tip is then cut at an angle of 30-45 degrees (right canted). This ensures a flat writing edge with a vertical ink slit.

One of the guidelines to follow, in deciding the proportions of the letterforms is to measure the letters with horizontal pen strokes.

3x Matra

Nib height (x)

6x Kana

3x U-kar

However, it is no longer limited to the traditional medium; we can replicate the quality in the digital medium as well.The most important thing is that the essence should stay and not get lost in the translation.

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It was crucial to get familiarised with calligraphy, even if the plan were to make a geometric, monolinear typeface.

It helped in understanding how the letters are formed and constructed, their overall flow and the similarities between each of them. It was not necessary to become a master of calligraphy, but understanding how it worked was a must.

The best way to get a hang of it (just like anything else) was to practice again and again. Until you feel you've reached the point that it's working has become clear to you.

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Type Anatomy Upper matra line

Headline Upper mean line Lower mean line Baseline Lower matra line Vertical conjunct line Deep matra line

Calligraphic proportions

Middle stem

Closed loop

Shiro rekha

Open counter

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Knot

Stem

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Devanagari follows a different structure than Latin and hence has a different set of rules and terminology involved in its anatomy.

Anatomy and proportions can be considered as the same thing, but some differences can be termed.

While anatomy is best followed by the book, proportions can change. And that change is what makes your characters different from someone's else's. The recipe remains the same, it's the spices that you're throwing in that make the difference.

S.N. Bhagawat in 1961 is credited to be the first to do a graphical analysis of Devanagari letterforms followed

by Bapurao S. Naik in 1971, whose work helped in standardising the general structure and anatomy. [3] More recently, Dr. Girish Dalvi in his research paper in 2009 summarised the different methods proposed by various authors. [4] And a polished version of the concepts was published in 2018 on Typetogether's blog by Ms. Pooja Saxena. [5]

Vertical Conjuct

Horizontal Conjuct

Akhand Conjunct

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Terminology

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A more deeper insight into the type world specific to Devangari can be found at the "Devanagari search tool" developed for interactive visualfeature based font search. Where the database is curated by faculty and staff from IDC IIT Bombay. [6]

While designing the typeface, it was important to know the anatomy and its terminology as well that was being used for the letters as it helped in discussing the forms with other people and also helped in identifying features for the characters that were crucial to the overall visual of the typeface.

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Type Classification This is a similarity drawn from the Latin classification of typefaces for a better overall look at the variety of typefaces that Devanagari currently has.

To be noted, these classifications are not historically correct but more 'visually' classified.

Old style Adobe devanagari

देवनागरी

A brief history of how typefaces evolved for Devanagari, starts with the first typeface developed

by Hari Govind Govil, for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company.[7] And it's influence can still be seen in the fonts that are emerging today. Adobe Devanagari is one of them which takes its visual language from Govind's "Typeface".

Transitional Eczar

देवनागरी Eczar tries to bring a balance between the aesthetic of the older style and the modern typefaces with a proper vertical axis and stroke contrast.

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Modern/ Didone Rozha One

देवनागरी An easy to identify classification of typefaces, due to their extreme stroke contrast. More suitable for titles and headings with a touch of elegance.

Slab Serif Teko

देवनागरी

Serif isn't a thing in Devanagari, but the characteristic features such as heavy weight and very low stroke contrast can still be found in the typefaces.

Grotesque Noto sans

दे वनागरी

The stage where sans serif fonts started to emerge for latin, is similar to when simplified version of devanagari letterforms started to emerge.

Humanist ITF Devanagari Calligraphic influence, visible flow and balanced stroke contrast with a traditional stress on the axis.

Geometric Poppins

देवनागरी

Geometrical with little to no stroke contrast.

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Primary Research

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Overview

The primary research was focused on title and body text typefaces and consisted of three major parts.

Studying existing typefaces, researching current media involved, and doing user research for native reader feedback.

While 'studying existing typefaces' and 'current media' is something you can still do on your desktop, for a typeface it would still be considered as part of the primary research because of the nature of type-design.

This is also a suitable time to say the project did not flow as linearly and smoothly as the document suggests. There was a lot of back and forth between each step. The primary research was also done in parts and in between different stages of the project.

But its impact on the brief and the outcome was just as important.

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Analysing Typefaces The Devanagari type world is filled with both examples of well-designed typefaces and the 'not so well' designed typefaces. But it's always good to start on a positive note and study what matters first.

Munshi Devanagari Inspired from traditional Devanagari script, Munshi has a diagonal axis, high stroke contrast and large open counters for better readability.

Munshi is a good choice for editorial design.

Adelle Sans Devanagari Adelle sans has a more modern tone to its face. It appears as more constructed and can be classified as grotesque while still carrying the humanist voice.

ITF Devanagari Derived from traditional devanagari calligraphy, ITF Devanagari is considered to be a 'classic' typeface. An ideal typeface for magazines & books. It has lesser stroke contrast but a greater diagonal stress.

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बादल पानी भरकर आए

Mukta A more contemporary, monolinear typeface. It's construction allows it to be used as a body text even for smaller point sizes. While the simplicity allows it to be paired with different scipts.

बादल पानी भरकर आए

Noto Sans Simple and on-point. Noto conveys only the necessary that is needed to make it legible and clear with monolinear strokes, open counters and simple 'knots'.

बादल पानी भरकर आए

Gotu It pushes the calligraphic aspect of Devanagari further and reinterprets the stroke contrast in Latin typefaces. Gotu is ornate and flow-y, lending a distinct voice to it's subject.

बादल पानी भरकर आए

Eczar Eczar is a mixer of geometric and humanist qualities. While it can be used for body text, it's heavy grey value makes it more suitable for titles and headlines.

बादल पानी भरकर आए

Martel A modern approach to enable stroke contrast in typesetting. It has medium stroke contrast with more angular turns which scales with respect to the weight of the font.

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Start with a base grid. but it's important to break away from it as it can often restrict the design.

The construction and flow of the letterform should be followed, keeping the individual letterforms and their characteristics in mind.

Some letters can be derived from each other, and it's okay to do so, as in the end, we are aiming for consistency and balance.

Vertical strokes appear thicker when placed horizontally so their width needs to be corrected optically

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Some typefaces follow a fixed proportion derived from the Shiro-Rekha, divided into 6-8 parts for flexibility. Others follow the headline - Upper/ middle meanline - Baseline format.

For maintaing good legibility and recognition, a set "Internal vertical proportion" is followed for the different weights of the typefaces.

Each weight has it's own proportion, whose ratio is adjusted as the weights progress in the family.

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• The turns in the letter forms are different from each other as they are optically corrected with regards to the structure of the letters.

• Grid is followed flexibly, so if needed that turns can either cross the grid or end before reaching it.

• Counter spaces aren't equal in every letter and once again measured by eye for better balance and grey value.

• The knots are mostly of the same size to maintain consistency with some exceptions where needed

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• How much the shiro-rekha should extend on either side of the letter is pre-defined and is followed throughout the face.

• Ending angles for the knots and the strokes is varied but still defined. like following a set of degrees used as needed. Eg.- 0, 30, 45, 60.

• Letters with diagonal strokes are not always on the same angle. In this case "Sha" and "Ae" have varying angles.

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Identifying problems with existing typefaces Looking back at the not-so-well designed typeface and where we are right now, well designed Devanagari typefaces available to us are still a minority. Even now, a lot of typefaces have basic fundamental issues that restrict them for real-time applications.

These issues have also been discussed by Mr Sarang Kulkarni in his presentation on "Issues with Devanagari Display Type" at TypeCon2014, which also presents possible scenarios of solutions and resulting typefaces by him and his team. [8] While he specifically talks about display typefaces, the insights also overlap with other forms of typefaces with similar issues. The examples have been taken from the current pool of typefaces available to us.

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Influence of Latin More than often, Devanagari fonts are either designed to work with already existing Latin fonts or the letterforms themselves are inspired from the Latin alphabets.

This creates integrity issues for the script and takes away the essence of the letterforms.

Oversimplification This is a more common issue nowadays where the words are required to be the least that they can be.

While this is not necessarily a bad practice and should actually be explored but if not done right, it creates legibility issues.

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Matra Placement Matras need focused attention and consideration while designing devanagari typefaces. Their placement and structures, if not done right creates confusion and readability issues.

Weird Conjuncts A matter of designing the additional glyphs with as much patience which can often disappear becuase Devanagari has a lot, really a lot of glyphs to design unlike Latin.

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Confusing letterforms This is an issue that appears when there's not enough individuality in each of the characters and they end up without any definite distinction.

In such scenarios the letters are often misread and confused for another.

Inconsistent structures Devanagari letters are by nature very organic and come in different shapes and sizes. The interaction of the counter/negative space plays a major role in the overall look of you typeface. If they are not balanced, the letterforms appear inconsistent when written together.

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Devanagari Media The following pages contain visuals from the current or past media involving Devanagari script and typefaces. Varying from print to screen, fonts to lettering and calligraphy, professional to student works.

Gathering these helped in getting an overview of the what is currently being practiced in the field.

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User Research The task for the users was to read passages of Hindi text in different selected typefaces with Sample chosen based on their age and compatibility with the Devanagari script. They had to give their views on what typeface they preferred and why. The feedback did not need to be inclined to a design point of view.

The research was focused on body-text primarily and was conducted for both print and screen. The typefaces chosen were selected considering their distinct characteristics and quality. The approach to the research was qualitative, followed by content analysis of both Primary and Secondary research.

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Insights Adobe Devanagari Most legible and preferred with "good spacing" and better word formation than others. It was Aesthetically appealing as well and was said to be "actual Hindi"as readers were more familiar with it.

Martel Least preferred. Disturbing because of bad spacing leading and appeared scattered and 'blackish' with no breathing space and irritating to read overall Mukta Termed as an "internet font", Mukta was simple and easy to read but not much preferred. It's organic rather than circular forms helped in legibility.

Halant Not suitable for text because of the perceived edgy and tallness due to the stroke contrast.

Cambay Also in the 'Internet font category', Cambay had good letter formation and with better spacing and weight than Mukta with a clean and simple appeal.

Poppins (not a body text suitable font) Outrightedly rejected due to its monotonous, maze-like pattern.

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Analysis v

There's a clear distinction between a traditional Hindi font and what now feels like an 'internet' font. Internet fonts are less preferred unless they're very well done.

e

Letter formations with more organic structure and negative space interaction often appear to be better than the ones with a monotonous tone.

f

Spacing, Kerning and Leading are crucial part of judging a typeface which, if not done right, renders your well done letterforms useless.

g

The more 'taller' the letterforms are, the more compressed and hard to read they become. Wide counter spaces create a better reading flow.

h

Fonts with high stroke contrast become too sharp or 'edgy' and become disturbing when reading in a body text format.

h

It's not as easy as Latin to classify Devanagari fonts for screen and print, considering the insights from both screen and print tests came out to be somewhat similar.

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Brief

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Redefined

Derive a Devanagari typeface that stays true to the script and has its root in the original structure through which the letterforms of the script have evolved. It should stay independent of any other script when being used and tackle the issues present in the existing typefaces.

The typeface should be applicable for screen as well as print, and should be suitable for body text and title.

Document the process in a concise manner and provide valid resources to help other aspiring type designers on their project of designing a Devanagari typeface.

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In Type-design projects, it almost impossible to predict how and when your output will be put to use in the real world.

Recommendation and preference are mostly the only things that author can put forward.

Audience Writers, Educators/Teachers, Speakers, Journalists, Artists, Students.

Medium Screen: Websites, Blogs, Posters, Illustrations, Presentations, Digital Newspaper & Articles, Videos and films.

Print: Books, Cover pages, Invitations, Newspapers, Brochures/Magazines

Attributes Classic not Old Organic but Clean Confident yet Humble

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Moodboard

The moodboard helped in reinforcing the process of thinking and developing the desired personality for the typeface and was not limited to just typography. If it felt right, it was included in the board.

Image credits (from left to right): Bhagwad Gita, Concepcion design studio, Serpentine Galleries, Jonathan ellis, Sarang Kulkarni, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., Saurav Harsh, ITF.

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Design

Development Ideation & Explorations

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• Practicing Devanagari & Calligraphy • Structural explorations • Choosing final letterforms to carry ahead

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The process started with looking at different handwriting samples which showed how people approached to construct the letterforms. And, of course, practising and getting back into the habit of using Devanagari.

Next was calligraphy, which was a bit harder than expected but "practice makes a man at least better than how he was when he started". It aided in comprehending how each letterform was constructed and how they flowed from beginning to end.

Their unique characteristics and similarities with each other that played an important part in designing the typeface.

Calligraphy is especially important if you are aiming to go for a modular approach for your typeface as you can decide the weight of the turns and curves of your letterforms in a better way.

Ideation/explorations for forms and structure of the letterforms were then done to choose which characters to go ahead with. It was tricky as more than a couple of letterforms felt aligned to the brief. The task was to analyse which letterforms had a potential in their “characteristics” which could be transferred to other letters as part of an entire family.

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Calligraphy Practice

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Structural explorations

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Root letters These were done to explore different structures for the letterforms that would suit the brief. The idea was to stay inspired by calligraphy but still try to add elements of flow and natural writing flair and hence these structural characters were chosen to work upon for later stages.

The starting character set for Devanagari is generally

अ, इ, ए, ख, त, भ, द, ध, थ, ष

because they allow you to carry their characteristics to rest of the letterforms and most of them can be derived from these starting forms.

Choosing a final set to work upon was an important task because it decided where the project would lead to.

The rest would be all about refinement, tests, validations and feedback.

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Refinement A good amount of time was spent on refining the letterforms as much as possible during the project. And several different approaches were taken to do so.

From rough sketches to proper drawings. From drawings to digital drawing softwares and ultimately to vectors.

Printing and blowing out the forms on the paper to judge the minute details helped a lot in this process. A lot of feedback from different readers on what they thought could be better or what was already working, aligned the forms to the designed brief.

The following pages show how the Devanagari characters grew from paper drawings to something that could be turned into a typeface.

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There were both very minute and very noticeable changes to the design through out the refinement process. Things that had to be kept in mind were: • • • • •

Structure and proportions Curves and turns consistency Stress of the axis Stroke variations Visible aesthetic of the forms

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At this stage, the insights from Primary research helped in determining the direction in which the letterforms would go into.

By now it was clear that the typeface had to be Humanist in a sense, so that it becomes suitable for body text and titles.

Monolinear

Traditional proportions

Flat end stems, Elongated proportions

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It was decided to follow the traditional proportions for the letterforms to stay true to the objective and it really was a consequential stage of refinement and carried itself till the end.

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Placing the characters in strings helped in figuring out how the letters interacted with each other Notice, the characters that serve as the base for the strings are Pa and Va, that is because they are different in form and helps in making more informed decisions. [9]

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Regular legibility checks and word formations.

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To further test the letterforms, more characters needed to be drawn inlcuding a few 'matras' and 'height extremes'. One of the problems faced while designing the typeface was becoming too familiar with the design.

At certain points, it becomes hard to judge the characters yourself due to the amount of time you've spent in drawing them. As a result, pushing until you have a somewhat prototype face is critical so that you can get feedback from readers and analyse the issues at hand.

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Constructing

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Multiple methods and softwares were used to and fro, for refinement.

Paper, Photoshop, Procreate & Illustrator at times. But towards the final variations of the design, proper vector forms (in Adobe Illustrator) were needed to be constructed to achieve better consistency and balance.

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Drawing clean vector shapes is a necessity if you want them to be usable.

It was kept in mind that the shapes contain the minimum amount of 'points' required to build the form so that it does not become complex to edit and adjust if required.

Another thing kept in check was that the Handles of the points were always at right angles only, until and unless a change was required. It helped in simplifying the approach to making the vectors.

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Illustrator or screens for that matter make it hard to judge the letterforms hence prints were taken to change the medium and look at it from a different perspective.

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Drawing the letters with different shapes rather than one whole shape, made it easy to handle the letterforms and quick to refine wherever needed.

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Font Software

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FontForge

The letterforms remain drawings until they are put into a Font software and adjusted to become usable as a font. For the purpose of this project, the open source, font editing software, "FontForge" was used to build the drawings into glyphs.

While open source softwares might come with a few problems, they are often backed by a huge community who is committed in making the software usable and capable of delivering what was intended.

There were some back and forths between the softwares as the original glyphs were made in illustrator and then imported to FontForge. Any noticeable change were done in illustrator due to its more precise control of points & handles, and were then imported to FontForge again.

A few of the tasks were cumbersome to do but the perks of using it were a lot more than them.

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A screenshot of the FontForge file with the Inital 65 glyphs for Devanagari

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The first thing that is great about a font software is that you can instantly type and see how your glyphs are turning out in the metrics window. Scaling it up and down also gives you a better view of how it might look in smaller sizes.

FontForge is a somewhat complex software when we try to go deep into its workings. The good thing is that there is a documentation or walkthrough available on their site and 'TypeDrawers' can also be referred to in case of any doubts that the documentation does not cover.

Youtube at this point also helped in understanding the software, but again, the resources on FontForge are also limited in a sense.

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Kerning & Spacing No matter how well designed your glyphs or letterfroms are, if they are not kerned and spaced well, the outcome won't even be usable.

FontForge allowed to determine the spacing for each character and create Kerning pairs for occasional characters. A base width for the glyphs was decided at first and then modified based on particual needs, it helped in bringing consistency within the spacing

Deciding how much the 'ShiroRekha' would extend from either sides of the characters helped in setting a base for spacing. But in the end eye-balling for Kerning was necessary for all of the letters.

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Matra(s) or diacretics need to be anchored to each character instead of kern. The main letter will serve as a base to each matra which would be anchord on top or bottom as required by the matra.

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Ligatures In Latin, the ligatures are needed based on how the letters are interacting when placed next to each other. Such as ffi fi st ft fl ß æ Interestingly, characters such as क्ष, त्र, ज्ञ are also considered as ligatures in Devanagari. This because of the way they are typed on computers

'Ksha' 'Tra' and 'Gya' are written as combination of these two other letters which includes the 'Virama'.

क्ष g क् ष त्र g त् र ज्ञ g ज् य How FontForge decides what is a Ligature involves some steps.

The first part being Naming your Ligature.

The Letters त, ् , र were named as 'Ta' 'Virama' and 'Ra'. and the needed ligature त्र was then named as 'Ta_Virama_Ra'.

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What and How many ligatures a typeface contains, defines how well thought and designed the family really is. The availability of ligatures, especially in Devanagari gives the writers, the control and flexibility needed to write anything, freely.

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Final Typeface

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Proportions

Calligraphic proportions

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Conjuncts

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While there are 128 basic glyphs for Devanagari, If we include all the glyphs for Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Sanskrit and other languages also including the ligatures and conjuncts, there are about a total of 847 glyphs required for one style or weight.

The time frame of the project limited the outcome but it covers the initial required 65 glyphs which are sufficient to show further scope for the typeface. A bold variant for the face has also been worked upon which will be discussed after this section.

Currently, the prototype can be used for representative purposes as it needs some manual adjustments while preparing the layouts. The idea is to take the project forward as much as possible with as much finishing as needed to produce a Font that would be usable for everyone.

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है – Mrityunjay

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जब घर व खिलहान धान से भर जाते हैं, सं घषर् शील ग्रामीण गं गा िकनारे अपने पूवर्जों और िऋिषयों को याद कर चं चल मन की शांित के िलए यज्ञ कर क्षमा याचना करते हैं िफर भूख से त्रस्त लोगों की सेवा कर रात में तारों की ठं डी छइयां मे थाली, ढोल, व झांझर बजा कर उत्सव मनाते हैं।

लोगो ं की सेवा कर रात में तारो ं की ठं डी छइयां मे थाली, ढोल, व झांझर बजा कर उत्सव मनाते हैं।

जब घर व खिलहान धान से भर जाते हैं, सं घषर् शील ग्रामीण गं गा िकनारे अपने पूवर्जो ं और िऋिषयो ं को याद कर चं चल मन की शांित के िलए यज्ञ कर क्षमा याचना करते हैं िफर भूख से त्रस्त लोगो ं की सेवा कर रात में तारो ं की ठं डी छइयां मे थाली, ढोल, व झांझर बजा कर उत्सव मनाते हैं। Saurav Harsh — Graduation project — Communication Desgin — 2021

Sample Text from Saurav Prototype Sample Text from Saurav Prototype Sample Text from Saurav Prototype

Я i E Я E , i i i E A E u ЯO

107 Mukta जब घर व ख�लहान धान से भर जाते ह� , संघषर् शील �ामीण गंगा िकनारे अपने पूवर्ज� और िऋिषय� को याद कर चंचल मन क� श��त के �लए यज्ञ कर क्षमा याचना करते ह� िफर भूख से �स्त लोग� क� सेवा कर रात म� तार� क� ठं डी छइय� मे थाली, ढोल, व झ�झर बजा कर उत्सव मनाते ह�।

जब घर व ख�लहान धान से भर जाते ह� , संघषर् शील �ामीण गंगा िकनारे अपने पूवर्ज� और िऋिषय� को याद कर चंचल मन क� श��त के �लए यज्ञ कर क्षमा याचना करते ह� िफर भूख से �स्त लोग� क� सेवा कर रात म� तार� क� ठं डी छइय� मे थाली, ढोल, व झ�झर बजा कर उत्सव मनाते ह�।

जब घर व ख�लहान धान से भर जाते ह� , संघषर् शील �ामीण गंगा िकनारे अपने पूवर्ज� और िऋिषय� को याद कर चंचल मन क� श��त के �लए यज्ञ कर क्षमा याचना करते ह� िफर भूख से �स्त लोग� क� सेवा कर रात म� तार� क� ठं डी छइय� मे थाली, ढोल, व झ�झर बजा कर उत्सव मनाते ह�। Cambay जब घर व खिलहान धान से भर जाते ह�, संघषर् शील ग्रामीण गंगा िकनारे अपने पूवर्ज� और िऋिषय� को याद कर चंचल मन की शांित के िलए य� कर �मा याचना करते ह� िफर भूख से त्रस्त लोग� की सेवा कर रात म� तार� की ठं डी छइयां मे थाली, ढोल, व झांझर बजा कर उत्सव मनाते ह�।

जब घर व खिलहान धान से भर जाते ह�, संघषर् शील ग्रामीण गंगा िकनारे अपने पूवर्ज� और िऋिषय� को याद कर चंचल मन की शांित के िलए य� कर �मा याचना करते ह� िफर भूख से त्रस्त लोग� की सेवा कर रात म� तार� की ठं डी छइयां मे थाली, ढोल, व झांझर बजा कर उत्सव मनाते ह�।

जब घर व खिलहान धान से भर जाते ह�, संघषर् शील ग्रामीण गंगा िकनारे अपने पूवर्ज� और िऋिषय� को याद कर चंचल मन की शांित के िलए य� कर �मा याचना करते ह� िफर भूख से त्रस्त लोग� की सेवा कर रात म� तार� की ठं डी छइयां मे थाली, ढोल, व झांझर बजा कर उत्सव मनाते ह�। Saurav Harsh — Graduation project — Communication Design — 2021

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Webpage: Jagran epaper

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Mockup: Anthony Boyd

Interestingly, as stated before that you can't predict how and where your typeface might get used, the work in progress version of the font was used to design a name plate.

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Bold Developing a bold weight for the typeface is still in the process and is still being worked upon. Although having designed the 'regular' version, eased the efforts of designing the bold and other weights.

The process for bold differed from the regular and was simplified due to FontForge. FontForge's style filter uses a sophisticated algorithm to add weight to the existing regular glyphs. While the outcome was better than expected, it still needs refinement and manual changes. But it did save the time of designing the characters again from scratch.

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A similar approach is followed in the industry for designing different weights for a typefamily, and not just for bold. Interpolation is a feature which allows you to select the two most extreme weights of your typeface on each end and produce weights that fall in between them.

But as is the case for every digitally generated product, it always needs commitment by hand and just as much testing and validation as the intial weights need.

Focusing on the initial weights is therefore important because if they are resolved well, the amount of work for the next weights will be less.

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Conclusion & scope

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The main challenge for designing the typeface was aligning the design with the brief and taking all the insights from the research into consideration.

A humanist typeface with calligraphic structure and stress is much harder to develop than a contemporary mono-linear face. To approach the design for body-text and title makes it even more challenging as compared to a Display type but the results are just as fruitful.

A lot of hard work and time has been dedicated to the project but it still has a lot of scope and insights to go on. While the project was self-sponsored, every possible opportunity of learning and applying something new was taken and as much interaction with fellow peers and faculties possible was done. The whole duration of the project was filled with phenomenal learning and education in every sense.

Indic scripts need our attention today as well. A simple set of letters turned into a digital format can change the entire outlook of our society and culture.

This documentation is done with the aim of making it available to others who might want to approach the subject and aid them, in whatever way it can, on their Devanagari journey.

A reason and a purpose are always necessary for starting a project, but in the end it does come down to why and if you want to do it or not. To successfully go through the journey, you need to believe in it.

Quoting Agyei Archer to end it on a Type-specific note,

"Draw the fonts you want to see in the world."

The aim is to now further develop the Typeface with the rest of the weights required for a well functioning font and if possible, pair it with a Latin counterpart for multilingual support.

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Bibliography Citations [a] Break Things Deliberately. 2016. Featuring Tobias Frere Jones. 99U. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGVamkuQXl4&ab_channel=99U [b] [c] Issues with Devanagari Display Type. 2014. Featuring Sarang Kulkarni. TypeCon 2014. https://vimeo.com/133792269

References [1] Cardona, George. 2009. Devanagari Writing History. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Devanagari [2] Gohad, Chitra. Evolutionary of Devnagri Typeface. D’Souce. https://www.dsource.in/resource/history-devanagari-letterforms [3] Typography of Devanagari. Naik, Bapurao S. Bombay: Directorate of Languages, 1971.

[4] Dalvi, Girish. 2008. Anatomy of Devanagari Typefaces. Design Thoughts. http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/resources/dt-jan-2009/Anatomy%20of%20 Devanagari.pdf [5] Saxena, Pooja. 2018. Devanagari Type Anatomy. TypeTogether. https://www.type-together.com/devanagari-type-anatomy.

[6] Devanagari Search Tool. Devanagari Font Terminology. https://dsource.in/tool/devft/en/terminology.php [7] Kumar, Anu. 2020. Hari Govind Govil: The Indian American Who Patented The “Hindu Font”. Madras Courier. https://madrascourier.com/biography/hari-govind-govil-the-indianamerican-who-patented-the-hindu-font/

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[8] Issues with Devanagari Display Type. 2014. Featuring Sarang Kulkarni.

TypeCon 2014. https://vimeo.com/133792269 [9] Design with FontForge. 2021. Designing Devanagari Typefaces. FontForge. http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/Designing_Devanagari_ Typefaces.html

Online resources 1. Violatti, Cristian. 2017. Brahmi Script. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/Brahmi_Script/ 2. Lydon, Kinnat S. 2015. Designing Devanagari type: The effect of technological restrictions on current practice. Iceland Academy of the Arts. https://skemman.is/bitstream/1946/25274/1/BA-kinnatsoleydevanagari.pdf 3. Gholap, Yashodeep. 2012. Designing a Devanāgarī text font for newspaper use. Typography Day 2012. https://typoday.in/2012/spk_papers/yashodeep-gholaptypographyday2012.pdf 4. Kulkarni, Sarang. 2013. Issues with Devanagari Display Type.

Typoday 2013. https://www.typoday.in/2013/spk_papers13/sarang-kulkarnitypographyday2013.pdf 5. Documentation, Microsoft Typography. 2018. Developing OpenType Fonts for Devanagari Script. Microsoft. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/scriptdevelopment/devanagari 6. Gandhi, Kimaya and Rob Keller. 2020. Creating a Devanagari Font. Glyphs. https://glyphsapp.com/learn/creating-a-devanagari-font 7. Thottingal, Santhosh. 2014. A Guide to Developing Fonts for Indian Languages. Fontbook. https://thottingal.in/documents/Fontbook.pdf

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8. Keung, Laura. 2020. The Ultimate Guide to Basic Typography.

EnvatoTuts+. https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-basictypography--cms-33460 9. Harris, Miriam. 2017. How to design a font: A step-by-step guide. Digital Arts Online. https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/typography/how-designtypeface-step-by-step-guide/ 10. MasterClass Staff. 2021. Humanist Typeface Guide: 7 Popular Humanist Fonts. MasterClass https://blog.youworkforthem.com/2016/06/01/what-is-ahumanist-typeface/ 11. Allen, Julie D. Unicode Consortium. 2015. The Unicode Standard, Version 8.0 – Core Specification. Unicode. http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode8.0.0/ch12.pdf 12. The Unicode Standard 14.0. 2021. Devanagari U0900. Unicode https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0900.pdf

Film & Videos 1. Hustwit, Gary, dir. 2007. Helvetica. Gary Hustwit https://www.hustwit.com/helvetica 2. The Importance of typeface design. 2009. Featuring Agyei Archer.

TEDxPortofSpain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xzexle3FV4&ab_ channel=TEDxTalks 3. Expanding the typographic palette for Devanagari. 2013. Featuring Pooja Saxena. Design Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nbbDKla3Fk&t=2210s&ab_ channel=HasgeekTV 4. 2013 AIGA Medalists. 2013. Featuring Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere Jones. AIGA Design https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goO0agnUOc0&ab_ channel=AIGAdesign

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5. Break Things Deliberately. 2016. Featuring Tobias Frere Jones. 99U. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGVamkuQXl4&ab_channel=99U 6. The power of typography. 2016. Featuring Mia Cinelli. TEDxUofM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_RzDqgGcao&ab_ channel=TEDxTalks

Printed sources 1. An Introductory manual of Devanagari Calligraphy. 2016. Designed by Team Aksharaya. Aksharaya - Letter Conscious People.

2. Thinking With Type. 2nd Edition 2010. Ellen Lupton. Princeton Architectural Press.

3. The Speedball Textbook. 23rd Edition 1999. Joanne Fink and Judy Kastin, Originated by Ross F. George. Speedball Art

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This document is set in A4 size (210mm*297mm) Document typeset in: Google fonts Łukasz Dziedzic ITC VIctor Caruso Google Fonts Pooja Saxena

Lato Regular Lato Italic Lato Bold Franklin Gothic Book Regular Cambay Regular Typefaces used for demonstrative purpose:

Pooja Saxena Adobe EkType

Cambay Adobe Devanagari Mukta

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