Yuseon Park The early digitization of Hangeul typefaces was not a single, linear process but the result of multiple technical, institutional, and creative approaches. This research examines how the transition from analog to digital forms was shaped by the structural complexity of the script and the diverse actors involved in its encoding, display, and design.
Early personal computers in Korea lacked Hangeul support, requiring peripheral devices known as “Hangeul Cards.” These hardware and software solutions reflected the challenge of accommodating over 11,000 syllabic combinations within the memory constraints of 8-bit systems. The fonts embedded in these cards were bitmap fonts, produced mainly by computer engineers rather than professional type designers.
With the spread of desktop publishing and high-resolution printers in the late 1980s and 1990s, the transition from bitmap fonts to outline fonts based on Bézier curves became a central technical development. Representative digital fonts of this period were often derived from phototypesetting models, with companies such as Shinmyung Systems and Sandoll playing important roles in their digitization. At the same time, research into outline font processing technology addressed issues of design efficiency, rendering speed, and output quality, with particular challenges posed by Hangeul’s large character set and structural complexity.
Individual designers also pursued experimental approaches, such as Rhee Sangchol’s Saemikipunmul (1984), Ahn Sang-soo’s AutoCAD-based typeface (1985), the Gonghan font (1989), and Kim Jinpyeong’s combinational designs, expanding the scope of early Hangeul digitization beyond institutional efforts.
The transition from analog to digital in the 1980s and 1990s was a formative period for Korean typography. Computer scientists, designers, and companies each contributed, and their work reveals multiple perspectives on how Hangeul was adapted to new digital environments. This study seeks to examine these convergences and interactions, with attention to the varied voices that shaped the early stages of digital Hangeul typefaces.