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Alkatra

A display family for Bangla, Devanagari, Odia and Latin, modelled on wall lettering drawn with a stick and tar.

Display 4 styles · variable by Suman Bhandary OFL

Download family 843 KB Type your own text

Alkatra is a display typeface family for Bangla, Devanagari, Odia and Latin, led by Suman Bhandary and inspired by wall lettering in Bengal. Alkatra is a variable font with a weight axis from 400 to 700 and four named weights. It is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and suits headlines, posters and multi-script branding.

Alkatra font preview card
Preview drawn by trendhub from the font files.
Designer
Suman Bhandary
Classification
Display
License
SIL Open Font License 1.1
Styles
4 4 weights
Variable font
Yes Weight 400–700
Glyphs
1,678
Languages checked
24 see the list
Last updated
version 1.100;gftools[0.9.22]
Used for
HeadlinesPostersBrandingCasual

Official source: Google Fonts. Facts on this page were read from the font files and the source’s published data.

Try Alkatra

Sample text

Type over the sample to test your own words. The preview loads a Latin subset of Alkatra; the download contains the complete files.

Alkatra font specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights
Alkatra specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights. Image drawn by trendhub from the font files.

Weights and styles

  • Regular 400Alkatra Regular
  • Medium 500Alkatra Medium
  • SemiBold 600Alkatra SemiBold
  • Bold 700Alkatra Bold

Alkatra is a variable font: the download holds the whole weight range in one file, and the named weights above are positions on that range.

About Alkatra

Alkatra is a display typeface family that covers four scripts: Bangla, Devanagari, Odia and Latin. According to the official notes, each script was designed with the same source in mind, the letters painted on walls in Bengal with a stick dipped in tar, and the forms keep the thick, blobby blackness of that tool. In the specimen the Latin leans forward, with strokes that swell and taper, soft rounded ends and low contrast. The family is a variable font with one axis, weight, from 400 to 700, and four named weights: Regular, Medium, SemiBold and Bold. It holds 1,678 glyphs. Suman Bhandary led the design and is credited as the designer; the notes say the Latin was drawn by Lewis McGuffie, with help on Odia and Devanagari from Nehal Mathews and Lopamudra Bose.

Where Alkatra works

Headlines across Indian scripts
Bangla, Devanagari, Odia and Latin share one design, so a campaign can run in several languages with the same voice.
Posters and wall graphics
The letterforms descend from painted wall lettering and keep their dark, brushy weight at large sizes.
Festival and cultural event branding
Swelling strokes with soft ends give a title a hand-painted look in every supported script.
Packaging with bilingual names
A product name can sit in Latin beside its Bangla or Devanagari form without a change of style.
Fine-tuned heading weight
The 400 to 700 axis lets a heading be set at any weight between Regular and Bold.

Glyphs

!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~¡¢

Latin and Latin Extended characters in the preview subset; the complete family has 1,678 glyphs.

Language support

The family contains the core letters these languages are written with:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Swedish
  • Norwegian
  • Danish
  • Finnish
  • Icelandic
  • Catalan
  • Turkish
  • Polish
  • Czech
  • Slovak
  • Hungarian
  • Romanian
  • Croatian
  • Slovenian
  • Lithuanian
  • Latvian
  • Estonian

Writing systems with glyphs in the family besides Latin: Bengali, Devanagari, Odia. These are listed as scripts, not as a promise for every language written in them.

Character sets found in the files: bengali, devanagari, latin, latin-ext, oriya. The language list is a check of required letters against the font, not a promise of typographic quality in each language.

License

SIL Open Font License 1.1Copyright 2022 The Alkatra Project Authors (https://github.com/suman51284/Alkatra)

What the license allows

  • Use the fonts in personal and commercial work, in print, on the web and in apps.
  • Modify the fonts and build new versions from them.
  • Redistribute the fonts, on their own or bundled with software, as long as the license text and copyright notice go with them.

Conditions

  • The fonts cannot be sold by themselves.
  • A modified version must stay under the same license and cannot use a Reserved Font Name without the copyright holder's permission.
  • The authors' names cannot be used to promote a modified version without permission.

This is a short summary, not legal advice. The license text decides: read the full OFL text. A copy is included in the download.

Fonts that pair with Alkatra

Alegreya Sans Sans Serif

Alkatra is a display face for headings; Alegreya Sans is a sans serif family with 7 weights that can set the body text beside it.

Almendra Serif

Alkatra is a display face for headings; Almendra is a serif family with 2 weights that can set the body text beside it.

Cairo Sans Serif

Alkatra is a display face for headings; Cairo is a sans serif family with 8 weights that can set the body text beside it.

Suggestions come from simple rules on the records: a contrasting classification and enough weights to carry body text. They are a starting point, not a verdict.

Use Alkatra on the web

Download the family and host the files on your own site, then declare them in CSS. Please do not link to the files on trendhub.net: preview files here are subsets and their addresses change.

CSS, self-hosted
@font-face {
  font-family: "Alkatra";
  src: url("/assets/fonts/Alkatra-VariableFont_wght.ttf") format("truetype");
  font-weight: 400 700;
  font-style: normal;
  font-display: swap;
}

body {
  font-family: "Alkatra", sans-serif;
}

Or load it from the official source. Google Fonts serves Alkatra with this markup:

HTML, Google Fonts

Things to know

One variable file
The download is a single variable font; Regular, Medium, SemiBold and Bold are named positions on the 400 to 700 weight axis.
The Latin is slanted
In the specimen the Latin letters lean forward in every weight, and there is no upright alternative.
Drawn for display
The official notes say the forms were designed mostly for display purposes, not for long text.

FAQs

Is Alkatra free for commercial use?

Yes. Alkatra is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows use in personal and commercial work, modification and redistribution. The font cannot be sold on its own, and modified versions stay under the same license.

Who designed Alkatra?

Alkatra was led by Suman Bhandary, who is credited as the designer. The official notes add that Lewis McGuffie drew the Latin and that Nehal Mathews and Lopamudra Bose assisted with Odia and Devanagari.

How many weights does Alkatra have?

Alkatra has four named weights: Regular 400, Medium 500, SemiBold 600 and Bold 700. As a variable font it can also be set anywhere in between.

Is Alkatra a variable font?

Yes. Alkatra is a variable font with one axis, weight, which runs from 400 to 700.

Which scripts does Alkatra support?

Alkatra carries Bengali (Bangla), Devanagari and Odia character sets alongside Latin and Latin Extended, which includes the letters for English, French, German, Turkish and Polish.

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