Nara (Typotheque)

[Thomas Kunz]

Nara explores gaps in traditional type classification. It exhibits characteristics of humanist typefaces, such as an oblique axis of contrast between the thick and thin strokes (as in Garamond, Bembo, etc.), but also characteristics of modern typefaces, such as high contrast, narrower underlying letter structures, and flat, unbracketed serifs (as in Bodoni, Didot, etc). The result is a lively, dynamic typeface that comes with two different styles for emphasis—narrow upright cursive, and slanted italic. The typeface’s character is even more distinctive in its heavy weights, where the slanted humanist axis of contrast produces surprisingly contemporary lettershapes.

Nara (under its working name Adriq) originated in the late 1980s as a student project of Andrej Krátky at the Prague Academy of Applied Arts. It was digitised in METAFONT, and was probably the first digital font in Czechoslovakia, before PostScript was readily available. It took 20 years to complete it, to convert the original drawings to bézier curves, to complete the character set, and most importantly, to give it the refined details and advanced OpenType features of a 21st century font. Andrej Krátky worked with Typotheque's Peter Bilak and Nikola Djurek to complete the project.