tan — Let’s begin with the question everybody asks. Why are there so few Georgian typefaces?
K.L. — Because it is expensive and the market is small. But that is an incomplete answer. The real reason is that Mkhedruli is hard to draw. There are no three or four base forms the way there are in Latin. Almost every letter has its own logic.
tan — Is that a problem or a property?
K.L. — A property. But a property that triples the work. In a Latin typeface, once you have solved n you have m, h, r and half of u. In Georgian there is no such economy.
The Latin alphabet is one family. Mkhedruli is thirty-three individuals who happen to have ended up in the same room.
tan — And yet it works.
K.L. — It works beautifully. That is what is interesting. The eye learns to tell those thirty-three shapes apart very quickly, probably because they do not resemble one another. In Latin you can confuse rn with m. In Georgian almost nothing is confusable.
Verticals and the body
tan — What do you look at first when you assess a new typeface?
K.L. — Rhythm. Mkhedruli has a very pronounced vertical rhythm — the body of the letters sitting on one line, and the elements running above and below it. If that rhythm is broken the text tires the reader, however handsome the individual letters are.
tan — What changes on the web?
K.L. — Line spacing. It is the most common mistake by far. Georgian needs more air than Latin because the ascenders and descenders are longer. If you take the leading you chose for Latin and apply it directly to Georgian, the lines collide. This is not a matter of taste — it is measurable.
tan — What would you tell somebody building a Georgian website?
K.L. — Two things. First: do not use Latin metrics for Georgian. Second: do not set Georgian in Mtavruli simply because it looks tidy in the layout. Mtavruli exists and it is legitimate, but it has its place. A navigation menu is not that place.