The National Card and Payment System (NCPS) announced its support for a project to revive the handwriting of Vasil Levski in the modern digital environment on the day of his 5th birthday. Smarketink took over the activities of the overall service of the project and the celebration of the anniversary – from the preparation of the budget, through the preparation of all materials for distribution to the company’s partners and the media (invitations, videos, gifts), to organizing a press conference to announce the project and evening event.
Within the framework of the initiative of the NCPS, a digital font of the Apostle of Freedom has been created, which is widely available to our society. The aim of the project is to popularize and recreate the written heritage of Vasil Levski with the means of digital technologies and to bring modern man closer to his spirit.
The font created by Stefan Peev is an important cultural event in our digital community, which is gradually parting with everyday handwriting. By introducing Levski’s handwriting in various printed and electronic formats, we will bring the image of the Apostle closer to ourselves and will “turn” our time to get to know more fully the spirit, its heritage and himself, because in the handwriting of each person is involved his character.
“Vasil Levski has one of the purest and most virtuoso handwriting of our famous revolutionaries. The handwriting of the Apostle expresses devotion, method and perseverance “, emphasizes Stefan Peev. He was inspired to create the digital font on the example of the reproduced handwriting of Michelangelo, William Shakespeare, Sigmund Freud in Western Europe and the handwriting of Pushkin and Gogol – in Russia. “Levski’s handwriting is beautiful, clean and harmonious. It has a strong and controlled character and a very interesting and rich internal dynamics, going beyond the standard stationery in the 19th century, “said Kiril Zlatkov, typographer and reviewer of the font.
Participants in the press conference for the presentation of the project “Levski” (from left to right): Iva Doichinova, Stefan Peev, Stoilka Arsova, Kiril Zlatkov and Daniel Ivanov
Digitization of Vasil Levski’s handwriting
It takes the author over 7 years to develop and reach the digital font to the general public. Public documents from the National Archive Fund of the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius ”. The font contains drawings of all uppercase and lowercase Cyrillic letters, Arabic numerals, punctuation marks, as well as numerous contextual ligatures and alternative characters. The texts created in this way can be close to the peculiar character of Levski’s “living” writing. “The relatively low height of the lowercase letters creates a clear silhouette of the words and lines, and the rhythmic and dynamic upper lengths, coming out in the generous spaces, give a subtle and emotional calligraphic look to the handwriting. This is very well reflected in the font of Stefan Peev “, explains Kiril Zlatkov.
Both in the original handwriting of the Apostle and in the digital font, the extremely beautiful calligraphic forms of most capital letters, especially A, B, C, D, K, P and R, are impressive. An interesting feature of the handwriting is the accentuation of some of the first letters of words – some initial characters in words are larger and taller than usual, sometimes with different shapes. “This gives an interesting rhythm to the lines and draws the reader’s attention more to the articulation and importance of each word,” adds Kiril Zlatkov.
How to get the font?
The digital font of Vasil Levski is provided free of charge after filling in the website of the project application and declaration for the purposes of its use. After approval, those interested will receive an email with a .zip file and installation instructions.
The legacy of Vasil Levski
To preserve the Bulgarian shrines through digitalization of our written heritage – this is the goal of the National Card and Payment Scheme, which supports the implementation of the project initiated by philologist Stefan Peev. This is part of a series of initiatives with which the NCPS will lay the foundations for creating a digital culture of Bulgarian writing. “Thanks to our rich expertise in the field of digital technologies, we will be able to pave the way for the legacy of Levski in our daily lives in an unusual, but also very humane way. This inspires us and inspires us with enthusiasm “, commented Stoilka Arsova. Watch a video about the project here.
The initiative of the NCPS is supported by the National High School for Ancient Languages and Cultures “St. Constantine Cyril the Philosopher” and the University of Shumen “Bishop Konstantin Preslavski”, and the vocal ensemble “Elitsi” contributes . The singing talent of the Apostle was noted by his contemporaries Hristo Botev and Panayot Hitov as a remarkable feature of his character and with the chants the vocal group in its own way gave new life to his legacy. “Through the chants, Levski has brought people closer to himself and his work, while at the same time encouraging this art, which is as exciting and beautiful as it is invaluable for the Bulgarian people,” said Daniel Ivanov.
The project to digitize the written heritage of Vasil Levski remains open for development and improvement, and we hope that it will be widely accepted and become a source of creative inspiration not only for highly specialized professionals such as museum workers, designers working in the field of language and literature. education and the press, but also for all the descendants of our historical heroes. If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of digital font information, please write here.
For the National Card and Payment Scheme (NCSP)
The National Card and Payment Scheme (NCSP) is a system of rules, procedures, policies and standards for determining and managing payment services offered by a number of banks and payment institutions in Bulgaria. The scheme is managed by the Board of Participants and the Board of Directors of BORICA AD. The main mission of the Scheme is the migration of cache and paper to digital channels through the development of new electronic services in the public and private sectors. The positioning of the wide range of products of the Scheme through new local business and price models is expected to have a positive impact on the country’s economy and to radically change the methods of payment in Bulgaria. The NCPS operates under the Bcard brand in respect of card payments, and for immediate payments by account – under the Blink brand. You can learn more about the Directorate at: www.bcard.bg.
About Stefan Peev
Stefan Peev is a philologist, creator and publisher of digital fonts. For over 20 years he has been digitizing fonts that have found application in a number of websites and print publications in Bulgaria. Its aim is to fill the gap in the modern Bulgarian culture of fonts with Bulgarian form of the Cyrillic alphabet and free license. He has developed a website that collects and presents in one place the fonts with Bulgarian form of the Cyrillic alphabet. Localfonts.eu currently includes over 300 free and paid font versions.
About Kiril Zlatkov
Kiril Zlatkov is a typographer, font author and graphic designer. He is behind the initiative for popularization and use of Bulgarian graphic form of the Cyrillic alphabet – Cyrillic.bg. He is the author of the exhibition “New Bulgarian Printing House”, shown over the past eight years throughout Bulgaria – in Sofia, Varna, Ruse, Plovdiv, Pazardzhik and Gabrovo.
