At the initial stage of developing typefaces and typography systems, the OpenType format had not yet been released and widely used in China. As a result, Founder embarked on its own path to manage font development and typesetting software for complex scripts like Mongolian, Arabic, and Tibetan. This talk will delve into the historical and political background behind the creation of these typefaces while also showcasing the type-making methods employed for minority scripts in the 1990s. Additionally, it will explore various use cases for these products as well as new offerings tailored to Chinese minority groups. This talk will explore the topic from two perspectives: Firstly, we will delve into the earliest digital typefaces used by Chinese minorities and examine the methods and techniques employed in type drawing and typesetting during the late 20th century. Moreover, the talk aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of visual modeling, letter drawing, and quality assurance processes. Secondly, from a typesetting standpoint, Founder’s own desktop publishing software was developed specifically for Mongolian, Tibetan, and Arabic scripts. These applications were created in the previous century; hence their techniques and fundamental logic differ from contemporary methodologies.
Multi-Script Typeface Design and Typography for Chinese Minority Groups’ Languages in the 1990s
