Ataturk Font a Sensation in Turkey

Ever-present in modern life, typefaces have sparked lawsuits, influenced business decisions and even inspired films and books. In Turkey, a typeface has now become a political symbol, downloaded from the Internet en masse and written about in the national media.

The computer font that has attracted so much attention is derived from the handwriting of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, whose secular legacy many feel is being threatened by the country’s Islamist-rooted ruling party. A businessman in the western Turkish city of Bursa, Murat Özbalci, commissioned a Texas company to design the font based on samples of the late leader’s distinctive cursive flourishes.