Kazakh Latin 2021: which letters you need and which fonts are ready

Kazakhstan is moving to the Latin script in stages, and the 2021 version of the alphabet already shows up on storefronts, in brand identities and in digital services. For designers, that means one thing: a font has to work equally well in Cyrillic and in Latin.

Which glyphs you need

On top of the basic Latin letters, the 2021 alphabet needs Ä ä, Ğ ğ, Ñ ñ, Ö ö, Ş ş, Ū ū, Ü ü, plus İ i and the dotless ı. Most modern fonts that support Turkish and other European languages already include these, but Ū ū is the one most often missing.

The good news

Of the 183 fonts in the catalog with full Kazakh Cyrillic, 179 also fully support Latin 2021. The Cyrillic side is usually the problem: a font can be ready for Latin yet still lack Ә or Ң.

A tip for bilingual layouts

Turn on the “Latin 2021” toggle in the catalog and type the same text in both scripts. You’ll see right away where the font feels cohesive and where Latin diacritics clash with the line spacing.