Reconceptualizing fonts as digital infrastructure in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Despite a decade of interventions in Sri Lankan typography—including international conferences, workshops, and open-source font releases—Sinhala and Tamil scripts continue to suffer from inadequate typographic infrastructure. This paper proposes a paradigm shift: understanding fonts not as commercial products but as critical digital infrastructure and public goods. The persistent fonts problem manifests through legacy-encoding systems rendering archives machine-unreadable, systematic neglect of Tamil script in multilingual contexts, and rampant piracy undermining commercial models. Root causes include market failure due to the non-excludable and non-rivalrous nature of fonts, conceptual misunderstanding of fonts as consumer products rather than infrastructure, and institutional gaps in standards governance. Drawing on infrastructure theory (Star, 1999; Tilson et al., 2010) and public goods economics, this paper articulates how fonts perform essential functions in encoding information, enabling communication, and empowering communities. Two project frameworks—a signage typeface system for national road infrastructure and a crowdsourced font library—demonstrate different provision models for font infrastructure. By reconceptualizing fonts as shared digital infrastructure, this study provides theoretical and practical frameworks for multilingual equity in Sri Lanka and comparable contexts.