Taisean

a typeface by Feòrag

This is an original typeface inspired by the idea “what if scribes had technical pens?” The forms are based on half-uncials, but the strokes are of constant width. The name is Gaelic for “skeleton” or more generally “remains of the dead”.

The character set includes support for virtually every language which can be written in Latin script and includes a selection of ligatures. These characters can be accessed by either choosing an appropriate keyboard layout in the International preferences panel, or via the Special Characters.../Glyphs menu option (the name seems to vary depending on the application).

Insular characters, used in Irish language typography, were added to Unicode 5.1 and Taisean includes these characters. Unfortunately, the Irish Extended keyboard layout on MacOS hasn’t kept up, so I have created an Irish Insular one which will enable you to type these characters.

The image below gives a sample of some of the characters included in the font:

The typeface comes in two 'flavours'. The OTF version is PostScript-flavoured OpenType; the TTF is TrueType-flavoured OpenType. Both should work on MacOS X, Linux and Windows systems. If you use MacOS 8 or 9, only the OTF version will work on these systems. If you have a PostScript printer, you should also choose the OTF version. The Irish Insular Keyboard Layout is MacOS X only.

Creative Commons License
This typeface is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 UK: Scotland.

Note that the license includes the provision Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. You already have my permission to use this font for commercial purposes, such as in a magazine or advertising, and do not need to ask (though a copy of whatever you used it for would be nice). There is also no need to credit me when using the typeface in this way. If you wish to redistribute this font commercially, including on a website with paid-for advertising, you must still get my permission to do so and you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.

Download OTF version 1.0 [Zip 1.2 Mb]
Download TTF version 1.0 [Zip 1.2 Mb]
Download the Irish Insular Keyboard Layout separately [Zip, 709 Kb].