The challenge of working in a design space where letters are reduced to minimal shapes with the capability to span a wide spectrum of widths, is that it forces you to confront of what elements are important for legibility. The design had to strike a balance between following the Fit formula while still retaining the identity of the Armenian script. Whether it was my tale of traveling Armenian merchants or his quest to make Fit the Noto Sans of illegiblity, a collaboration was born. I proposed the idea of an Armenian expansion to David. This sparked the idea вЂ“В what would an Armenian version of Fit look like? The narrow counters, the variable widths, text made to fit the container вЂ“В I was immediately transported back to Surat. The following year, the family was expanded by Oded Ezer to include Fit Hebrew. Fit is a pioneering design released in early 2017, shortly after the announcement of the OpenType Variations format. It was during this journey that I first heard of Fit, the radically experimental variable font by David Jonathan Ross. This technique combined with the format of the tombstones produces a unique style based on maximising the impact of text in a limited space. At Surat, the carvers cut away the counters and surrounding space, allowing for shadow to define the letter shapes. This is unlike the traditional stone carving IвЂ™ve observed at medieval monasteries in Armenia, where each letter is incised into the stone. What is most striking about the tombstones is that the letterforms are cut in relief.

ligating letters by sharing overlaid shapes.

placing hovering abbreviations marks within in the gaps.

nesting and wrapping letters in and around each other.cutting thin counters the width of a chiselвЂ™s edge.To fit the text into the grid row, the carver used a variety of tactics: strict grid of rows defining the height of letters.Each stone follows a particular format, as unique as the letterforms themselves: The tombstones we found varied in size, ranging from a small book to a table.

The only remains of this once flourishing community of successful merchants, eminent lawyers, renowned poets, skilled artisans, military commanders, clever diplomats, and able administrators are left inscribed in the tombstones of the Armenian Cemetery at Surat.

The eventual rise of the English East India Company and the shift towards Bombay as the вЂGateway of India,вЂ™ brought the decline of Surat. It is here that the English merchants, arriving to India in the early 17th century, saw with grave concern that the Armenians вЂ“ the pioneers of foreign trade in India вЂ“ were well established in the country. Historic Surat was the port city linking East and West. In each, they built communities with schools, churches, printing presses, cultural institutions, and, ultimately, cemeteries. They established first in the royal capital of Agra then spread throughout commercial centres: Surat, Calcutta, and Madras. In the 16th century, Akbar the Great, learning of the global network of the Armenian trade, induced the merchant princes to settle their sojourn in his dominions. Since the days of remote antiquity, Armenian merchants travelled from snow-clad mountains to the tropics of India searching for spices, muslin, and precious stones вЂ“ birds of passage who found favour in the court of Mughal Emperors.

Armenian font text