Anushah Hossain Written communication online depends on a dense network of technologies: encoding standards, font formats, shaping engines, keyboards, locale data, and more. While practitioners in type design, standards, and software engineering often engage across fields, their work is rarely described through a shared conceptual lens that makes visible the interdependencies between these domains. This presentation proposes the “text stack” as such a framework: a way of analyzing the layered infrastructure that underpins digital writing across scripts.
The text stack model highlights both the interdependence and the vulnerabilities of the system. Each component has its own history, governance, and funding model, but they rely on one another in ways that are often invisible until something breaks—whether it’s a missing character, a shaping bug, or a glitchy keyboard.
Drawing on research into standards development, open-source projects, and the labour of type professionals, this presentation maps the major layers of the text stack and identifies key chokepoints where fragility is most acute. It traces how open standards and open-source models came to dominate this infrastructure, why sustainability remains a critical challenge, and why minority scripts face the greatest struggles. It also underscores the limited resources behind this work—maintained by only a handful of technologists, many contributing on a volunteer or incidental basis.
The text stack framework offers a new perspective for scholars, practitioners, and advocates. It demonstrates how the success of digital writing systems depends on collaboration across disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and it invites the type community to recognize its role in sustaining a fragile but vital infrastructure that underpins global written communication.