Proto-typography: how type is dictated by the surface it’s written on

It’s not something that’s been interrogated enough; however, it was first proposed in 1996’s The World’s Writing Systems – edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright – that the distinctive cursive and rotund forms of multiple Southeast Asian and South Indian scripts are a result of material letterforms were first inscribed on. For the case of Balinese, Devanagari, Telugu, Tamil or Odia, to name but a few, different forms of leaves were used as the platform in which to write – for example, scratching messages into dried palm leaves before applying and whipping back an ink-like substance to reveal the ‘printed’ letters. It’s argued that these Southeast Asian and South Indian scripts opted for rounder forms as more angular lines damaged the leaf surface, making both the medium and the message beyond repair.

Meanwhile, Western Latin scripts opted for angular, more linear forms as standard, with the typical applications of lettering being carved into stone. In fact, as Timothy Samara’s Typography Workbook suggests, the structured strokes and serifs of Roman lettering came from the stone carvers, who introduced these small feet at the terminals of type forms to tidy up their appearance. Now, this lineage can be seen on screen, a long, long way from their engraved legacy, despite the drastic shift in medium.

The surface of typographic usage has not greatly changed over the past few decades since digital screens; however, we’ve found ourselves at a fascinating crossroads of technical and cultural interplay, whereby new spaces emerge for type to exist. With Apple’s VisionPro hitting the shelves, alongside other well-established VR brands that continue to push the tech at different price brackets – and AR's long-promised integration into daily life becoming increasingly a reality – now art, type, and design face new avenues to consider. And with it, new restrictions for practitioners to interrogate – the basis for original, inventive and expressive creativity.

“Working with new media is about navigating the technical restrictions and making a lot of design decisions around it,” explains designer, researcher, creative technologist and artist Rajshree Saraf, suggesting that the restrictions on type for new tech – such as AR and VR – can be both computation and skill-based. “Most days I spend wondering if the tech is the problem or if I am the problem,” she details; however, she utilises this to her advantage as an excuse to push herself creatively. “The output is rarely what I initially envisioned, but the restrictions are what makes the process of working with tech so rewarding for me.” Rajshree is excited about the “literal physical restrictions” that AR affords her as a designer. “The ceiling might be too low, or the carpet is the wrong shape, or perhaps it’s just too dark out,” she contextualises, “it’s a lot of balancing those physical restrictions with the technical restrictions in real-time – it’s a nightmare, but honestly, it’s just so fun… restrictions are fun.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Niteesh Yadav, a research-focused, multidisciplinary designer who’s worked with the likes of Google and, most recently, Meta, exploring emerging technologies and asking how they might fit with contemporary creative experiences. “Restrictions are like challenges and who doesn’t like a good challenge?” he provokes. Niteesh believes, as with any other design domain, the restrictions offer a direction to projects. “Starting with a blank canvas can feel overwhelming at times and I feel restriction in that scenario helps in putting guardrails around the design process,” he says, “the medium for me always plays a vital role in laying out its specific needs and that is where the creative journey starts.” In doing so, raising the challenge of how one can exploit the technical limitations of the medium to get the outcome that’s needed, as well as ultimately asking how the medium physically and technically affects the design of type forms.

Niteesh believes AR technology is still in the evolutionary phase.“The resolution is lower than today’s standards, and that, coupled with the behaviour of light which tends to soften the edges, creates a lot of legibility challenges in the medium,” posing quite a challenge to type designers. “To overcome this behaviour and medium-specific limitation, I designed features like flaring at the ends,” he explains, accommodating the missing pixels in lower resolution and, in doing so, shaping a better letterform, leading to the creation of an entirely new design consideration. “I introduced the ‘Augmented Reality Retinal Resolution’ axis that allows the use of the same typeface for different headsets,” he details, allowing one to adjust the typeface depending on its resolution.

“Physically, the medium and existing technologies dictate the form, size, and design of the typeface,” explains NYC-based multidisciplinary designer Rozi Zhu. “Technically, different materials require specific techniques and technologies,” and – as for our intrepid trio – this often necessitates the creation of new approaches, processes and software. “Talking about designing typefaces for scripts like Devanagari for AR interfaces,” Niteesh notes, “the influence of the medium becomes very clear where a lot of design decisions are based on the rendering of text,” due to the overlaps and junctions innate to Devanagari. “It requires careful consideration of where to add weight and where to reduce it,” perhaps to a greater extent than Latin, again highlighting the disparity in design considerations between Latin and Southeast Asian scripts, even within the same digital space.

Rajshree’s Typespace font deals with such issues, having been crafted explicitly for AR with the aim of leveraging the unique “spatial affordance” that the specific digital realm offers. “I wanted to be able to customise AR type to the environment in real-time,” she recalls, “making it fit weird corners, stairs, water fountains and more,” a feat that comes with its fair share of techy challenges. “I wanted it to look a little more stylistic but every added vertex made processing much more burdening,” she explains, making the whole thing crash. Turning to early digital fonts for inspiration, Rajshree opted for a more low-fi approach, taking technology a step back to push forward, using “primitive 3D cubes” to construct the lettering, making it computationally efficient. “Historically, every media has had an impact on how the type looks, and if this low-fi pixel aesthetic was AR’s, so be it,” she tells us, “the tech is evolving so fast, it’s only a matter of time before it changes.” Adding, Rajshree explans, “I realised how AR’s capability elevated the dated pixel look,” noting, “AR gave the humble cubes the flexibility to be scalable and variable in all dimensions”; utilising the spatial capability of its context, fighting its technical challenges, and shaping its own style in the process. Form as the result of function.

The restriction of digital spaces and the subsequent designs crafted to handle these challenges, make an impact that is more than simply pragmatic. After all, these are the typographic forms we (in theory) could be facing, using and dealing with on a daily basis – especially if Apple’s spatial visions become a reality. “There are no blank canvases in AR,” Rajshree continues, “physical contexts become important in AR for conceptual and emotional considerations,” a fact long ignored with AR’s general aesthetic being trendy, shiny and 3D. “It is hard to convey complex emotions beyond the form of the letters,” she adds, but considering the AR environment as something experiential goes quite a distance. “What works for me is thinking of lettering in AR as designing mini-experiences, not just simple extrusions of 2D type restricted to four corners,” Rajshree details. “It means thinking beyond the form and the texture; we should also think about the spatial composition,” considering interactivity and integration within the physical world. “Tech applications feel more devoid of emotions,” Niteesh adds, paying attention to user expectations across his design process. “In tech, quirkiness is not that widespread, so most of the time I focus on the functional aspects,” he continues, focusing again on experience, “however, on lettering projects, I tend to go more experimental and emotion-heavy approach.”

Here, both the medium of the message and the material of the message play significant roles in expressing character, something that, up until this point, was limited mostly by ink colours, foils and the like. “Different mediums lead to varying tools and techniques for creation, each with its own set of possibilities and limitations,” Rozi explains, “and each medium evokes unique visual effects and emotional resonance,” referencing her own lettering as examples. “Bubbles suggest transience, crystals convey strength, and ferrofluids offer playful fluidity,” she says “This intertwines the choice of medium with conceptual and emotional aspects of typeface design,” shaping the overall aesthetic and distilling qualities reflective of the chosen medium’s personality. She adds, “each medium brings its own unique properties, influencing both the conceptual and emotional,” something that will become all the more critical when we look towards the future development of type design, moving to emerging and developing spaces.

As the reading experience moves beyond flat surfaces to hyper-immersive environments, it will ultimately affect how type is engaged and interacted with – going from a more passive relationship to an active one. Alongside the development of new tools for type design, Rozi suggests that there is great potential for accessible typefaces, giving a braille font as an example. “Braille necessitates tactile engagement,” she explains, “leveraging advancements in spatial computing, it’s conceivable to integrate tactile elements into digital interfaces,” Rozi concludes. “While these changes won’t occur overnight, they represent an exciting frontier in type design, where technology and creativity converge to redefine how we perceive and engage with typography.”

“I think we’re headed in an era of experimental typography,” Rajshree adds, “new media means there are no old rules to feel bound by,” noting that there is no ‘right way’ to do things, especially right now. “AR has a whole new dimension and physicality attached to it that’s not limited to our screens,” she continues, with the simple extrusion of 2D fonts into 3D media not being enough. “There might be a lot more explorations in 3D-first typefaces,” Rajshree suggests, raising, challenging and asking questions of the user experience, such as ‘How should the type change based on the reader’s viewing angle?’ Or ‘how can we make typography responsive so that it adapts to the surroundings?’ All considered within the realm of restrictions. “I think the evolution of spatial computing and AR/VR technologies means an era of crazy experimental typography,” Rajshree concludes, “and I am here for it.”

“The bigger change will be expectations of highly adaptable typefaces,” Niteesh remarks, as, within these digital spaces, the users, rather than the designers, have control of the typefaces. “There are countless variables like ever-changing backgrounds, brightness of the environments,” he adds, “reading the text outdoors on a typical day in London that in Delhi is quite different, for example. To design for such scenarios, typefaces that can adapt to different aspects, using the wide array of sensor data from the AR devices, are going to be the way ahead,” – meaning many more variable axes, including ones yet to be invented. Whichever way the medium heads, it looks like the form of the message will be dedicated to one thing more than ever before – the experience. With it inevitably being more personalised than ever, perhaps we should be asking, how can the message’s medium reinforce the message itself? And how can this help culture moving forward?