Evertype

Evertype. It is a typography and publishing company founded in 1990 by Michael Everson, a prominent linguist and standards expert. Based in Dublin, Ireland, the firm specializes in creating and distributing Unicode-compliant typefaces for a wide array of the world's writing systems, particularly those which are lesser-supported. Evertype also publishes a range of books, from linguistics texts to editions of classic literature, often with a focus on minority languages and orthography.

History

The company was established in 1990, emerging from the personal projects of its founder, Michael Everson, who was deeply involved in the early digital typography and character encoding communities. Its formation coincided with a pivotal period in the development of the Unicode Standard, as the need for a universal character set became critical with the expansion of the Internet and personal computing. Initially focusing on font design for Celtic languages like Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Evertype quickly expanded its scope in response to the ISO/IEC 10646 standardization process and growing advocacy for digital language preservation. Over the decades, it has played a consistent role in bridging the gap between academic linguistics, information technology, and practical publishing, contributing to projects for languages from Ogham to Mongolian script.

Typefaces

Evertype has produced an extensive library of Unicode fonts covering numerous historical and modern scripts. Key families include the "Evertype" series itself, which provides comprehensive support for Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic with advanced typographic features. The company is particularly noted for its work on insular scripts, creating definitive digital versions of typefaces for Gaelic type used in Ireland and Scotland. Other significant releases encompass fonts for African alphabets, Cherokee, Deseret, Glagolitic, and many constructed scripts like Tengwar. These fonts are engineered to meet the rigorous encoding models of the Unicode Consortium and are widely utilized by governments, linguists, and software developers internationally.

Publications

Beyond font design, Evertype operates as an active publishing house, releasing both academic and general interest titles. Its catalog includes critical works on writing systems, such as editions of the seminal report "Alphabets of Europe", and practical guides on orthography reform. A notable segment of its output is dedicated to publishing texts in minority languages, including new editions of classics like "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" translated into Cornish, Manx, and Old English. The press has also issued important reference books, conference proceedings from events like the "SIL International" workshops, and facsimiles of historical documents related to typeface design and palaeography.

Michael Everson's role

Michael Everson is the founder, principal designer, and driving intellectual force behind Evertype. A renowned standards expert, he has served as a leading member of the Irish Mirror Committee for ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 and has been a significant contributor to the Unicode Consortium for decades. His personal research and advocacy in encoding numerous scripts, from Egyptian Hieroglyphs to Bamum, directly inform Evertype's font and publication projects. Everson's work, recognized by institutions like the Royal Irish Academy, ensures the company's outputs are grounded in rigorous academic linguistics and adhere to formal international standards, making Evertype a unique entity at the intersection of scholarship, technology, and commerce.

Unicode advocacy

Evertype and Michael Everson have been instrumental in the promotion and implementation of the Unicode Standard. This advocacy involves the practical work of creating compliant fonts, but also extensive participation in the standards process itself. Everson has authored countless proposals to add characters and scripts to the standard, including those for historic systems like Linear B and contemporary needs like the Euro sign. The company's fonts serve as reference implementations for many encoded scripts, aiding software and operating system developers, including Microsoft and Apple, in achieving global internationalization and localization. This advocacy extends to publishing technical guides and supporting the work of organizations like the Script Encoding Initiative at UC Berkeley.

Category:Companies based in Dublin Category:Type foundries Category:Publishing companies of Ireland