Typography Design for Nigerian Indigenous Languages: A Case Study of Igbo Script Adaptation

The design of typefaces for Nigerian indigenous languages presents specialised challenges related to diacritic representation, tonal marking systems, and cultural aesthetic expectations that are largely unaddressed by existing Latin-based typefaces. This project focuses on the design and evaluation of a typeface specifically adapted for the Igbo language, addressing the typographic representation of its dot-below and high-tone diacritic systems. Igbo is spoken by over forty million people predominantly in South East Nigeria, and is an official language of Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, and Abia states, yet suffers from poor digital typographic representation that limits its use in formal publications, education, and digital communication. A review of existing Igbo-language publications, school textbooks, and digital platforms documented widespread rendering failures for diacritic characters. The typeface design process follows the standard type design workflow from skeleton sketches to glyph vector drawing, spacing, and kerning, producing a complete character set covering all Igbo diacritic combinations in both regular and bold weights. Cultural consultant review sessions with Igbo language scholars and secondary school teachers informed aesthetic judgements and functional requirements. Legibility testing with one hundred and twenty Igbo readers at varying reading distances assessed character recognition accuracy. The resulting typeface achieved a ninety-four percent first-read character identification rate. The project recommends open-source release to enable integration into Igbo-language educational publishing. Keywords: typeface design, Igbo language, diacritics, indigenous typography, South East Nigeria.