Luciole Math: a typeface developed explicitly for visually impaired academics

4 months ago 23

Introduction

This new extension of the original Luciole project was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Regional Technical Center for Visual Impairment, the type-design studio typographies.fr and the mathematician Daniel Flipo. The project was fortunate to receive a grant from the association PEP69 and support from the association GUTenberg.

The aim was to create a new reference font for the sciences that would be both more accessible and capable of responding to the various applications of mathematics, from engineering to teaching.

PEP69 CTRDV typographies.fr DIPHE Ceres Foundation GUTenberg SEPH

About

Mathematics and visual impairment

In recent years, Luciole has gradually established itself as a promising new typographical standard in the field of visual impairment in France. It is being adopted by leading publishers and hundreds of professionals in the field of visual impairment, including transcribers, teachers, developers, and orthoptists.

We believe that Luciole Math can serve as a valuable addition to Luciole, offering visually impaired students and researchers an accessible and professional tool for university studies, research and teaching.

Luciole and Luciole Math

A powerful editorial tool

Luciole Math contains over 3,000 characters, in compliance with Unicode to ensure compatibility with equation editors. It has been developed using a professional character set, in line with the main recommendations of the American Mathematical Society.

Luciole Math contains the Latin and Greek letters in four variants, calligraphic, fraktur and blackboard bold letters. The typeface has been designed with the aim of ensuring optimum legibility for visually impaired readers, while at the same time making it easy to use for research and teaching professionals.

Greek, Calligraphic, Fraktur, Blackboard bold.

A typeface for mathematics

The design of Luciole Math is based on a combination of tests and studies carried out as part of the Luciole project, as well as valuable feedback from readers since the project was launched. In addition, more specific tests were carried out during the development of Luciole Math with expert users, with a particular focus on the technical dimension and legibility issues specific to a scientific typeface.

As with the Luciole project, our intention is not only to make Luciole Math available free of charge, but also to present and share this work and its methodology as widely as possible.

Screenshot of the type design tool and code used to develop Luciole Math typeface.

Try it

Give the Luciole typeface a try by typing some text here.

Download

Download the typeface

Luciole Math for academics is available for download under a OFL license, which covers use (including commercial use) and distribution of the typeface for free.
Simply download the package and follow the instructions in the documentation to install the font.

Download Luciole Math (ZIP · 2.1 Mo)

Luciole Math has been designed for professional use with Tex/LaTeX.

Contact us for further information or specific file format.

Arrows and various math symbols.

The team

Project initial team

  • Coordination: Carole Malet and Jonathan Fabreguettes
  • Ophthalmologist: Dr Florence de Saint-Étienne
  • Orthoptist: Anne-Céline Blanc
  • Psychologist: Véronique Morra
  • Typeface designer: Laurent Bourcellier
  • Transcriber: Jonathan Fabreguettes
  • Researchers: Anna-Rita Galiano (PhD) and Nicolas Baltenneck (PhD)
  • Students: Gaétane Hurstel, Camille Benas, Gaëlle Bonnesseur, Hind Drissi and Vanessa Augereau-Depoix

Project current team

  • Coordination: Cécile Gautier and Jonathan Fabreguettes
  • Ophthalmologist: Dr Florence de Saint-Étienne
  • Typeface designers: Laurent Bourcellier and Daniel Flipo
  • Transcriber: Jonathan Fabreguettes
  • Mathematician: Daniel Flipo
  • International development: Nawal Fetnaci
  • Training development: Muriel Villard
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