The creation of Bengali typeface

  • Panchanan Karmakar (Mallick) holds the acclaim of creating the first Bangla typeface for the presses, while assisting English typographer Charles Wilkins. 
https://zeenews.india.com/bengali/state/serampore-press-town
  • Type-casting is a technique of casting individual letters in hot metal typesetting. The need for the Bengali typeface arose during the printing of A Grammar of the Bengal Language by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed. The mission was undertaken to teach organised Bengali grammar to the common masses. Halhed took the initiative of making the Bengali typeface in England, however this proved to be a failed and expensive effort. This was because Bengali have a combination of alphabets that can run into thousands and have more intricacies compared to the English alphabets. 
Nathaniel Halhed and Charles Wilkins


  • It is believed that Karmakar completed 700 punches for Devanagari letters. Karmakar’s Bangla alphabet and typeface were in use and later replaced by a simplified version was created by Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. 
  • Karmakar was born in Tribeni, Sreerampore. Apart from Bangla, Karmakar developed type in 14 languages, including Arabic, Persian, Marathi, Telugu, Burmese and Chinese. 
  • He hailed from a family of blacksmiths and later calligraphers who inscribed names and decorations on copper plates, weapons, metal pots etc. His ancestor was bestowed with the title of ‘Mullick’ as a recognition for carving designs on swords, shields and armours for Alivardi Khan, the nawab of Bengal. 
  • In 1779, Karmakar moved from Hugli to Kolkata.  In 1800, he was hired by William Carey for the Serampore Mission Press in Hooghly, (from where the first Bengali newspaper Samachar Darpan was published in 1818). In 1801, he developed a typeface for British missionary William Carey's Bangla translation of the New Testament. In 1803, Karmakar developed a set of Devnagari script, the first Nagari type to be developed in India. He passed away in the following year. 
  • Panchanan was assisted in his work by his brother Gadadhar Karmakar. His son-in-law Monohar Karmakar (Mullick) and Gadadhar’s son Adhar Chandra Karmakar (Mullick) continued his work. Adhar later joined Vidyasagar in developing a simplified typeface of Bengali alphabets. 
  • The family press remained operational till the early 1990s. 
  • The Gutenberg process for creating the typeface for a language involves making a hard metal punch known as a mother type. The alphabets created on the mother type, which were mirror images of the original lettering, were then hammered into a soft copper bar creating an imprint of the actual alphabet. This is known as a matrix, which operates as a mould for the final typeface, known as movable type, which is made with a lighter alloy. A single matrix can be used to make thousands of movable types, which in turn are arranged in the required sequence, inked, and printed on paper. 
  • Halhed and Wilkins did not give Karmakar his due credit at that time. Much later, creative attempts have been made to keep alive the legacy of the creator of Bangla typeface. 
  • Rajat Chakraborty’s Panchananer Haraf is a fictional work on the life and works of Karmakar. In real life, Karmakar was in all probability unlettered. “To him, the letters were nothing more than designs he was trying to replicate. The rounded strokes, the minutest detail...” says Rajat Chakraborty, who has read about him in the book Bangla Mudran o Prokashan by Chittaranjan Bandyopadhyay. 
  • A Bengali play, dedicated to Panchanan Karmakar named Akshorik (meaning literally), by the theatre group Aneek, was staged at Tapan Theatre. “Akshar means letter. 
  • The West Bengal Master Printers' Association (WBMPA) in its annual calendar of 2018 reminisces the six print stalwarts including Karmakar, from the East and their contribution towards Indian print industry. 

  • Anirban Mitra has designed an open-source project for creating a OpenType version of the world's first Bangla Typeface - as a tribute to Panchanan Karmakar. 
  • In April 2025, the creations of Panchanan Karmakar were showcased at an exhibition named Haraf at the Khelat Bhawan in Pathuriaghata area of North Kolkata. The metal typeface of Bangla and other languages were on display. Type-writter machines dating back to the presses of the bygone era were also showcased. 
Devanagari Typeface

Display at the thakurdalan







Type writter machine


Instruments for carving the metal typefaces

The print


Display at the basement


  • In a narrow lane diverting from GT Road in Serampore’s Battala area is located the 250-year-old building associated with Panchanan Karmakar. His priceless contributions were carefully preserved for generations here. Original manuscripts, hand carved wooden and metal blocks and the machines associated with the initial days of printed Bengali forms are retained.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchanan_Karmakar

https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/people/how-panchanan-karmakar-a-blacksmith-from-sodepur-created-the-first-bengali-typeface-200-years-ago/cid/2089463

https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/for-the-tongue-the-design-panchanan-karmakars-creation-first-bengali-font-for-type-casting/cid/2010168

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/west-bengal/the-forgotten-pioneer-bengal-owes-its-printed-word-to-gets-resurrected-in-a-play/article69163238.ece

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