Korean typeface

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Development of typeface is the beginning of the development of design."

 

 

 

I played a game called ‘Don’t starve’ on this weekend. Even though there is no translation in Korean, I thought how important the Korean typeface is. The typeface used in ‘Don’t starve’ is narrow in length and long overall. Besides, it's decorated in creepy way. It goes well with the game, but there seems to be no Korean font to replace it. The typeface determines the most basic look and feel of the design with text. However, Hangul has fewer types of typeface and is not diverse compared to English. The causes I thought were as follows.

1. It was made more recently than the alphabet.
Hangul was proclaimed in 1446. Therefore, Hangul has been used for about 570 years. English has been used since the 5th century. Of course, Hangul written in 1446, and English written in the 5th century are very different from what it is today.

2. There are an overwhelming number of letters to make.
Hangul is 11,172 characters and English is 26. There are about 430 times more Han-gul characters.

3. Low sense of copyright in Korea
Korea does not pay for other people's products because of its low sense of copyright. The typeface also has many problems, most people download and write illegally without buying it. This directly leads to the question of livelihood of the font designer.

4. Korea is not the main stream in the design field.
It has not been long since the design itself appeared in Korea. Design is still an unfamiliar culture in Korea.

5. The font market is not established
When buying Hangeul typeface, it is often sold in groups. I need only one typeface, but I often have to buy 99 types of typeface that I don't need, so it costs me more money. It is inappropriate for an individual to buy typeface because it is sold to a company.

6. Alphabet and lettering are completely different
Hangul consists of a consonant vowel. This is a very different element from English, and it is hard to get motifs from the relatively advanced English font.

 

Many factors are slowing down the development of the Korean typeface. I think the development of typeface is the beginning of the development of design. I hope more unique and beautiful typeface are made.