Malayalam Fonts

When it comes to Malayalam fonts for web designers, there seems to be a lack of quality Malayalam fonts. However, if you observe Malayalam print and more traditional media, there are some very cool fonts being used in movie posters, news papers, magazines, and advertising.

While doing a little searching for Malayalam fonts, I came across—”My Experiments with Type”—a presentation made at Typography Day 2008 IDC IIT Bombay in March 2008, by Malayalam font designer, Hashim P M, who currently is the Chief Designer at Desgin Difference Cochin.

Coming from an Engineering background, Design was like liberation for me. The joy of creation is overwhelming. And I fell in love with… type! I found that those little specks of black can make a very big impact. Photography, Printing, Publication Design, Graphics… Design gave me a whole new world. I have been enjoying every moment ever since.

Here are some of Hashim’s fonts from his presentation:

Vartha

Designed for Malayala Manorama as a student project at IDC

Indulekha

The most popular Malayalam Font, making it the Helvetica of Malayalam fonts.

Revivarma

First Calligraphic typeface in Malayalam

Ambili

First Malayalam serif font

Chihnangal

Symbols Typeface

Kingini

Designed when he worked for Malayala Manorama

Puthuma

Ambadi

Font used in the redesigned Mathrubhumi Weekly headlines

For more of Hashim’s Malayalam fonts check out his IDC presentation.

Other Malayalam font resources

IFSCO Malayalam Font Catalog

McGill University School of Computer Sc. List of Malayalam fonts.

There are a lot of beautiful Malayalam and other Indic fonts out there, but good online resources for purchasing these fonts are lacking. I hope designers like Hashim will soon start to make some of their beautiful fonts available for web designers.