Abstract/Summary

Fiona Ross and John Hudson (co-designers) were commissioned by Harvard University Press to design an original typeface in the Bengali script (Bangla) 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 Bangla was first employed in the publication of Bharatachandra Ray’s text In Praise of Annada (HUP, 2017). The design follows the manuscript tradition of letterform construction reintroduced to typography by Linotype Bengali (designed by Ross and Tim Holloway) in the late 1970s, but in a less condensed form with lower stroke contrast. Informed by Ross’s extensive research into Bengali typeforms, Murty Bangla’s proportions and overall texture are closer to those of metal types previously employed by the leading Kolkata publishing-house Ananda Bazar Patrika. The robust, lively design of Murty Bengali is intended to provide excellent readability of this classical text for all readers.