Free font based on the handwriting of Taras Shevchenko, the Ukrainian poet, artist and philosopher.

In collaboration with Henadij Zarechnjuk & Lukyan Turetsky. On the request of Kyivstar.

Kobzar KS contains all the necessary elements of the modern digital design. It has Latin and Cyrillic letters,
supporting about 100 languages. It contains its own numeric symbols, punctuation and mathematical signs,
and fractions.

For the most demanding users, there are ligatures and ornaments integrated into the font, while some letters
boast several different forms. Resembling authentic handwriting, the font evokes a sensation of belonging to the national heritage and a certain historical epoch.

To create a font, its authors digitized handwritten texts by Shevchenko. While the Latin letters were actually a
designers’ invention – unfortunately, Shevchenko didn’t live to see the age of globalization and bilingualism. The font also contains peculiar features of Shevchenko’s hand, such as elongated strokes in separate letters at the word ends.

The designers themselves called their work on the Latin letters, ligatures and other cosmetic nuances a creative experiment. To experience the font’s functionality at its fullest we recommend an OTF (OpenType Font) format font file.

Languages: Ukranian, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Serbian, Bulgarian
Turkish, Belorussian, Swedish, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Icelandic, Irish, 
Albanian, Croatian, Slovak, Moldovan, Danish, Polish, Estonian, Latvian, Slovene, Lithuanian, Indonesian, 
Maltese, Filipino, Taiwanese, Vietnamese.

 

Supported codepages: 1252 Latin-1, 1250 Eastem European, 1251 Cyrillic, 1254 Turkish, 1257 Baltic.

Designers Dmitry Rastvortsev,  Henadij Zarechnjuk and Lukyan Turetsky in process. 

Dmitry Rastvortsev and Henadij Zarechnjuk  presents the font at the Ruthenia Festival.

Photos by Vadim Mostepaniyk 

Kobzar KS presentation in Shevchenko Museum. Video by 5 Сhannel

About the Project

Express your love for Ukraine in Shevchenko’s hand!

In celebration of the 200th birthday of Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine’s national telecommunications service provider Kyivstar presents Ukrainians with the unique font Kobzar KS, replicating handwriting of the famous artist and writer.

Story behind the font’s creation takes us to the National Taras Shevchenko Museum, where a group of researchers from Lviv had accidentally came across a facsimile edition of a handwritten collection of poems ‘Three Years’, or ‘Tri Lita’ in Ukrainian. That was a unique book with poet’s handwriting living its own life, courageously dancing on each of the manuscript’s pages. Leaving it on paper would have been a crime. Thus, teaming up with Lviv designers, Kyivstar set on a journey to release poet’s handwriting and create a unique font that would look exactly like it.

A lot of effort has been put into creating a font that would live up to today’s technical requirement, while at the same time remaining as faithful to Kobzar’s authentic handwriting.

The font supports over 100 languages. Apart from Cyrillic script, it contains letters of a Latin alphabet, resulting in diverse creative and communication possibilities. 

KobzarKS is very easy and expressive at the same time. Its symbols fit smoothly into the line, creating a word. Each word makes a sentence, while each sentence
is a part of soul, an embodiment of Ukrainian life and traditions contained at Kobzar’s handwriting. This font is a key to a cultural code opening up a window to Shevchenko’s mind, his genius, and his creative legacy.

Using this font, everyone can express their love for their homeland, pay tribute to the traditions and preserve a sacred cultural heritage of Ukrainian people. The font is free to download and may be used for the purposes provided for in the License Agreement.