Style combination · Contrasts

Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography × Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

Set against the carved, oblong pecha page, it shows what cast metal type did to an Indic script: repeatable sorts, sizes and tiers of commentary instead of one carved block per page.

From the research on Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography (Bombay Metal Type)

Mix them and make something Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture, their arrangement from Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography, the finish from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography (Bombay Metal Type) Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)

Type from Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography: Brush & pen calligraphy
Tight setting
Colour from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture: Monochrome
Full polychrome

Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography avoids full polychrome: this is where the two pull against each other, which is the point of the contrast.
Form from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture: Folk & sacred symbols
Stylised figuration
Composition from Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography: Classical text block
Layered information
Surface from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture: Carved line
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography

Light

Yatra One, standing in for Nirnaya-sagar Pica No. 1, the basis of Monotype's 12 pt Devanagari, and the Nirnaya-sagar pica struck from Ranoji Raoji Aru's punches that Tilak's Kesari used

Text · Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

Tibetan Buddhist and Bön woodblock printing, from the first printed Kangyur (1410, cut in China) and the 15th-century presses of Gungthang to the great printing houses of Narthang, Derge and Lhasa. Books take the pecha form of Indian palm-leaf pothis: long, unbound oblong leaves of headed Uchen script, justified with syllable dots, cut in reverse from a calligrapher's copy and printed in black, or in cinnabar red for the Buddha's word. The same workshops cut icons, mandalas and prayer flags: a wind horse ringed by mantras, printed on cloth in five element colours and left to fade in the wind.

Caveat; Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture used Uchen (dbu can, 'with a head'), the headed script of print, written out by monk calligraphers as master copies for the block cutters and Umê (dbu med), the headless cursive of everyday handwriting

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture, with a counter-accent from Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography (Bombay Metal Type) Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)

#efe6cf ground · 36%
#1c1a17 ink · 14%
#e3b02e accent · 18%
#a08a62 accent · 14%
#c23b22 accent · 10%
#cbbd9b accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #efe6cf;
  --ink: #1c1a17;
  --accent-1: #e3b02e;
  --accent-2: #a08a62;
  --accent-3: #c23b22;
  --accent-4: #cbbd9b;
  --font-display: "Yatra One", cursive;
  --font-text: "Caveat", cursive;
}

Use it with care

Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography (Bombay Metal Type): Much of the press's output is scripture and ritual text, from the Vedas with their accents to Purāṇas, stotras and the almanac that fixes the dates of rites and festivals, so never use mantras, verses or divine names as texture, crop, mirror or garble them, or put them on floors, footwear or throwaway goods. Have every Sanskrit, Marathi or Hindi word set with correct conjuncts and read by a fluent reader, since image models invent pseudo-Devanagari with broken headlines and impossible ligatures, never present a generated page as a Nirnaya Sagar imprint, and credit the founder and his punch-cutter Ranoji Aru as well as the pandit editors.

Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags): Pecha, icon prints and prayer flags are sacred objects in living Tibetan Buddhist and Bön practice. The Kangyur is the Buddha's word (hence its cinnabar ink), icon prints guide the painting of deities, and flags carry mantras, the four dignities and prayers for a named sponsor. By tradition flags are not put on the ground or worn as clothing, and old ones are burned rather than thrown away. Do not use real or imitation pages, mantras or flags as texture, party bunting, fashion prints or logos, do not crop or mirror them, and have any Tibetan written or checked by a fluent reader. Image models cannot write Uchen and invent letters, so leave text areas blank in generated images and never present one as a real text or flag. Derge still prints by hand from its historic blocks, while Narthang's main halls were razed in 1966: credit and commission Tibetan calligraphers, carvers and printers, in Tibet and in exile, rather than tracing their blocks.

The two styles

A vintage-style Marathi library poster printed in black on textured cream paper features an enormous Devanagari heading above centered informational text. Double rules and small floral ornaments divide the opening hours, printer details, and notices.

1864–present · South Asia Nirnaya Sagar Devanagari Typography (Bombay Metal Type) Devanagari as Javaji Dadaji's Bombay type foundry (1864) and Nirnaya Sagar Press (1869) cut and printed it: upright metal type with a strong headline, cut with the punch-cutter Ranoji Aru, and enough conjunct and 'Akhand' sorts to set Sanskrit, Vedic accents and Marathi whole. Pages stack root text, smaller commentary and footnoted variants in black on pale paper, almost without ornament. Naik credits it with the classical Devanagari face, the basis of Monotype's 12 pt Devanagari; digital fonts such as Adishila trace it. c. 1410–present · East Asia, South Asia Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags) Tibetan Buddhist and Bön woodblock printing, from the first printed Kangyur (1410, cut in China) and the 15th-century presses of Gungthang to the great printing houses of Narthang, Derge and Lhasa. Books take the pecha form of Indian palm-leaf pothis: long, unbound oblong leaves of headed Uchen script, justified with syllable dots, cut in reverse from a calligrapher's copy and printed in black, or in cinnabar red for the Buddha's word. The same workshops cut icons, mandalas and prayer flags: a wind horse ringed by mantras, printed on cloth in five element colours and left to fade in the wind.

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With Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

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