a typeface by Feòrag

Cianán is a typeface inspired by the script in an old Irish manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Bodleian MS, Ir. e. 6). The manuscript can be viewed on the web. The 18th century manuscript appears to contain the legendary history of Ireland and genealogies. The name comes from an Irish scribe working in the 14th century—Seaán O Cianán.

Version 2 has been radically reworked. The glyphs are more balanced and consistent, though hopefully without losing the handwritten feel. It is now an OpenType font using Unicode—there is no longer any need for a separate Celtic font, and all those characters (and many more) are now all in the one file. If you do not have the specific keyboard layout installed, they can be found using the Glyphs/Special Characters menu item in most MacOS X applications.

The image below gives a sample of some of the characters included in the font:

The typeface comes in two 'flavours'. The OTF version is PostScript-flavoured OpenType; the TTF is TrueType-flavoured OpenType. Both should work on MacOS X, Linux and Windows systems. If you use MacOS 8 or 9, only the OTF version will work on these systems. If you have a PostScript printer, you should also choose the OTF version.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Note that the license includes the provision Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. You already have my permission to use this font for commercial purposes, such as in a magazine or advertising, and do not need to ask (though a copy of whatever you used it for would be nice). There is also no need to credit me when using the typeface in this way. If you wish to redistribute this font commercially, including on a website with paid-for advertising, you must still get my permission to do so and you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.

Download OTF version 1.0 [Zip 188 Kb]
Download TTF version 1.0 [Zip 308 Kb]