Events
Designing Fonts for Two Billion People
with Peter Biľak , Anurag Gautam
India's languages are many. Designing fonts is complex. Discover how Typotheque protects this linguistic heritage.
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For the past decade, Typotheque has worked on a comprehensive type system for the Indian subcontinent, a region characterized by immense linguistic diversity. Recognizing the challenges posed by the multitude of languages and scripts—many of which lack adequate typographic representation—this ongoing type system encompasses over 400,000 glyphs across 17 scripts, including Devanagari, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, and lesser-known scripts like Ol Chiki and Meetei Mayek or Wancho. The design process involved extensive research into regional typographic traditions and reader preferences, ensuring that the fonts are culturally and linguistically appropriate. By collaborating with local communities and conducting field studies, Typotheque aimed to preserve linguistic heritage and promote inclusivity in digital communication, setting a new standard for multilingual typography.
Letterform Lectures are a public aspect of the Type West postgraduate program. The series is co-presented by the San Francisco Public Library, where events are free and open to all.
Peter Biľak
Peter Biľak is the founder of Typotheque, a company that develops fonts for global languages and also operates as a publishing house. His personal focus is on the support of digitally disadvantaged languages and the revitalisation of indigenous languages in North America, South Asia and Africa.
Anurag Gautam
Anurag Gautam is a type and graphic designer based in Bangalore, India. He received a multidisciplinary design education at Ahmedabad’s National Institute of Design, and has been worked with major type foundries in India before embarking on a life of a freelance designer and researcher.
