Typeface Design for Print and Web
Over 6,000 ligatures per style, generated by a custom Python tool built specifically for this project
Calcula is a layering display font family designed by Shiva Nallaperumal and published by Typotheque in 2017. Inspired by the geometric Kufic style of traditional Arabic calligraphy, it treats each letter as context-sensitive, adapting its shape to neighbouring glyphs to produce continuous maze-like negative and positive spaces. The family relies on extensive OpenType engineering to function as a typeface while behaving with the contextual logic of lettering.
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Set in Calcula
Insights
- Each glyph interlocks with its neighbours through asymmetric forms, requiring thousands of contextual ligature alternates rather than fixed letterforms.
- Tal Leming wrote a bespoke Python program called Ligature Builder to automate assembly of glyph parts into the 6,000+ ligatures per style.
- Frederik Berlaen is credited as a contributor alongside designer Shiva Nallaperumal.
- Single letters, word strings, or Adobe Illustrator Pattern Brush sequences can all generate repeating geometric patterns from the same font data.
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