Abstract/Summary

Fiona Ross and John Hudson (co-designers) were commissioned by Harvard University Press to design an original typeface in the Devanagari script for Hindi language composition for the prestigious Murty Classical Library of India series. In line with other specially commissioned Indian-script typeface designs for this project, the brief was to provide high-quality readable type that would render the classics accessible to a wide readership world-wide, i.e. to young readers as well as scholars of Indian literature. Murty Hindi typeface, whose design was informed by Ross’s long-standing research of Devanagari manuscripts and typography, was first used for the publication of the classical text of Surdas, Sur’s Ocean (HUP, 2015). The proportions and styling of the characters are in keeping with the typographic tradition established by the renowned Nirnaya Sagar Press, yet with a deliberate reduction of the typically high degree of stroke modulation to produce a robust modern design with clean lines and generously proportioned counters to ensure optimum readability at both text and footnote sizes. Murty Hindi is now available, free of charge, for non-commercial use from the Murty Classical Library of India website.