Abstract/Summary

This exhibition presented materials from the Non-Latin Type Collection at the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication to illustrate the translation of scripts into type for the production of non-Latin newspapers around the world. The focus of this exhibition was on five major scripts: Arabic, Bengali, Devanagari, Malayalam and Telugu. The selected artefacts dating from the 1930s to the present day show the hot-metal newspapers and their subsequent digitally printed counterparts in conjunction with some of the original letter-drawings and related material that formed essential parts of the design process for the different typefounding technologies during this period. It featured resources, never previously exhibited outside the University of Reading, that help inform current day researchers and practitioners of the key issues pertinent to non-Latin typeface design and typography. Co-curated by Fiona Ross and Alice Savoie, who gave gave short talks about the holdings of the Non-Latin Type Collection, the provenance of the materials exhibited, and the use of primary sources for research and typographic practice today.