PL Deshpande’s handwriting a digital font now
The memories of multitalented Purushottam Laxman Deshpande, popularly known as Pu La, will remain alive among his followers in the digital world.
Pune-based digital agency Be Birbal will launch the digital font of Pu La’s handwriting on June 12 — the death anniversary of the most popular and adored multifaceted personality that Maharashtra has ever had.
Besides being a writer and humourist, Pu La was a stage actor, script writer, composer, musician, singer, orator and music director.
The font, titled Pula100, available for free download, is a digital replica of the legendary author’s handwriting and will let its patrons experience what they write in the penmanship of their favourite humourist. Gandhaar Sangoram, founder-director, Be Birbal, said, “The idea to pay tribute to the legendary author by developing a digital font of his handwriting was conceived in his birth centenary year. Therefore, the name — Pula100. The font is fruition of our one-and-ahalf years of efforts.”
The font, Sangoram said, will be registered with library later this year.
The work to develop a digital font of the Marathi author’s writing started as an in-house exercise with data sampling of the letters written by Deshpande procured from Inter-university Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune.
Later, a font expert was brought on board to finalise the font.
“Considering the huge following of Pu La across the world, creating a digital font of his handwriting was a task loaded with responsibility. The basic challenge was to capture the essence of his writing in the font”, said Sangoram.
“PL Deshpande’s handwriting had a flow derived from the speed of his thoughts and the curves of his letters is a visual testament to a hand trying to keep up with the mind. To take the physicality and tangibility of something as personal as someone’s handwriting, and making it digital and to immortalise the essence of that person, is our biggest achievement so far. Dinesh Thakur, Jyoti Thakur and Niranjan Abhyankar from IUCAA along with Kimya Gandhi contributed in the font development”, said Sangoram.
“Pu La’s handwriting is very peculiar. It is almost like one can see the speed at which his thoughts get penned on paper. His handwriting is free-spirited and it was a bit challenging to find the peculiar letter forms that could be added to the font,” said Gandhi.
“He creates some very whimsical letter combinations, that make me smile as a font designer—and to me are the soul of the font. I feel honoured to be a part of the project and had the opportunity to create an immortal memorabilia of the legend that was Pu La.”