Output details

'Lagoon' font – Digital Revival of an Armenian Type Design. This project created a new typeface for the Armenian alphabet, based on traditions exemplified in rare Armenian books and manuscripts, which contributes to the resources available to Armenian graphic designers to aid communication across the diaspora.

Printed examples from library collections were photographed, examined and analysed to inform the design of a text type for present-day computer keyboarding based on the best of Armenian classical traditions. The inclusion of Latin characters designed to the conventions and proportions of the Armenian glyphs was an entirely original concept. Usually, Armenian digital types are designed to match the forms of Latin type characters and ‘Latinized’, by uprighting forms; truncating ascenders and descenders; raising the x-height – but in this case the Latin characters in the font were designed to blend in with the traditional Armenian proportions based on cursive forms – also incorporating some quirks from the original model. Following the original created ‘clashing’ characters, particularly those with long descenders, so the font contains over 100 alternative characters in the Armenian part, which will normally substitute automatically where necessary. The font itself contains the information for the manipulation of the glyphs to create the correct ligatures, special characters etc. which may be needed, using the ‘glyph substitution’ or the ‘glyph positioning’ features of the font programmed by the designer.

Puzzovio developed a rigorous methodology coupled with critical judgment. It was based on previous research interviews with professional designers who recreate historical types; visual examination of samples; macro photography of sample characters from manuscripts; hand-drawn outlines based on these at 50mm capital height which makes allowances for ‘ink squash’, damage and wear to metal types and the analysis of this visual information. These methods are used in conjunction with features of the (FontLab) software that aid the editing of outlines and creating readable fonts for keyboarding on modern computers.

Such typefaces for the Armenian community were lacking and the failure of previous attempts by Armenian designers to complete such a project in the form of an OpenType font makes the work significant.