Wellington firm adds rupee symbol to font range

A Wellington design company has become one of the first in the world to offer the symbol for the rupee among its font range.

The Indian government first announced it was to create a sign for its currency in 2009. A design competition was held, and the winning symbol was presented to the public in July last year.

Now, Wellington’s Jack Yan & Associates has released its takes on the symbol in its font range, under typeface arm JY&A Fonts.

Business founder and designer of most of the typeface range, Jack Yan, says he was excited to add the rupee symbol to his font range having fallen in love with India while travelling.

"When the symbol was announced, I felt compelled that we should add it in for designers and all computer users in this wonderful country.”

The symbol is based on a letter from the Devanagari alphabet used in India and Nepal. It denotes ‘ra’, and is similar to the capital R in the latin alphabet, but without the vertical line.

The establishment of a rupee symbol is thought by many to be a sign of India's potential to become a global economic power in coming years.

Go here to check out JY&A’s takes on the symbol.