Industry: Design

Typeface Design for Multiscript Communication

Eleven scripts, one global voice

Ping Round is a warm, fluid sans-serif released by Typotheque in 2022, designed by Peter Biľak (Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Armenian) alongside specialist designers for Arabic, Georgian, Hebrew, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The Latin proportions were specifically adjusted to integrate harmoniously with all supported scripts, rather than adapting a Latin-centric design after the fact. The family includes nine numeral styles per weight and a unicase OpenType feature that blends lowercase and small caps within a shared x-height zone.

Set in Ping Round

Insights

Latin proportions were recalibrated from the outset to sit coherently alongside Arabic, CJK, and other scripts—rather than merely giving other languages a version of a Latin-based design.
A unicase substitution feature blends lowercase letters with small caps, constraining all glyphs between the baseline and x-height.
Each weight ships with nine numeral variants: lining, old-style, tabular lining, tabular old-style, superior, inferior, circled, and circled inverted; licensees can set their own default.
Script authorship was distributed across dedicated specialists: Kristyan Sarkis (Arabic), Akaki Razmadze (Georgian), Daniel Grumer (Hebrew), Ekaluck Peanpanawate (Thai), six designers for Chinese and Japanese, and Seulki Kim and Chorong Kim for Korean.