# Georgian: Mkhredruli alphabet - fonts, handwriting



## winenous

I am not even sure I am asking the question in the right way, but let me try... 

I understand the Georgian script you see in the main text of books and magazines, and also the basic handwriting style that beginners seem to be taught, which is generally very similar to the printed version but has quite different წ and ჯ letters.

However, there seems to be a number of different letter styles/fonts that are used in headlines, and on posters, which in the Latin alphabet would be called block capitals, and I often have problems reading these. Could someone please point me to a resource that has whole alphabets written in these styles, so I have something to learn in a focused way?

Understanding real and natural Georgian handwriting is also difficult for me, but I guess it is more difficult to find explanations of this online....?

Many thanks in advance


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## Circunflejo

Unicode has Mtavruli Capital letters and Khutsuri Capital letters.


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## winenous

Many thanks for your reply, but unfortunately those links do not help.



Circunflejo said:


> Mtavruli Capital letters


These are the letters I am looking for, but the font used in this document makes the uppercase letters look very similar to the lowercase ones, and I can read them easily. Many other uppercase fonts alter the lowercase forms to a greater extent, and it is those that I sometimes struggle with.



Circunflejo said:


> Khutsuri Capital letters.


These letters are from an old ecclesiastical Georgian alphabet, which has little or nothing in common with the modern Georgian alphabet (Mkhredruli) I am interested in.

Below are some examples of "difficult" fonts from posters, which is perhaps their most common use (you should be able to click on them to see larger images). I can figure out most of the letters, and I could have a good guess at others, but I really struggle with a small number of them. Of course, if my Georgian were better, I would recognise the words without knowing all the letters, and my problem would go away, but sadly I am not at that level.







Edit: With a bit more googling, I managed to find this - Levan Butskhrikidze - which is the sort of thing I am looking for. In fact, while this is a rather unusual font, I think the forms will help me understand more basic ones.


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## Circunflejo

winenous said:


> unfortunately those links do not help.



What a pity!



winenous said:


> Below are some examples of "difficult" fonts from posters, which is perhaps their most common use (you should be able to click on them to see larger images).



OK that gives me a better idea of what you are looking for. If I find something that may help you, I'll let you know but, most likely, I won't be able to make a decent search till the weekend.


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## winenous

Thank you again for your offer of further help, @Circunflejo. I have been wondering about these letters for some months, so I can certainly wait another few days!


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## Circunflejo

I had some time today so I made a brief search and I found that the first of your pictures can be easily deciphered with the information about Georgian alphabets and variants of letters provided in Georgian scripts - Wikipedia. You should give it a try. Sadly, there's not a picture showing the alphabet with all the quoted variants for each letter but with some time you could make it yourself.  It's late today so I'll leave the other 2 for another day; probably the weekend, as I told you.


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## winenous

Thank you again, @Circunflejo. That's great.

You are quite right that the wikipedia article seems to contain the information I need to decipher my examples, but maybe not in the handiest form for getting an overview of any particular font or style. I have no idea how I managed not to find that for myself - believe me, I did spend quite a bit of time trying.

Also, chasing through some links from the wikipedia article, I found FONTS.GE | ყველა ქართული ფონტი ერთ საიტზე (again, I am not sure how I managed to miss a site with that URL), which contains links to pages with individual fonts laid out alphabetically, including the block letter styles I was particularly seeking.

So I feel my search is over, but if you do come across any further resources, I would be very happy to receive them.


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## Circunflejo

This web may be useful too: BPG Georgian Fonts ფონტები.


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## winenous

Plenty of examples there! Thanks again!


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