The Brana Ethiopic font was created by Missouri University faculty member, researcher, author, poet and painter, Amha Asfaw in 1995. The Brana font came with the Brana 90 word processor software developed initially for Windows 3.1. Brana 90 was notable as the first Windows based software made specifically for composition in Amharic and other Ethiopian languages .
The name "Brana" (ብራና) is itself a homage to the original media of Ethiopian literature. Brana has served as the backdrop for Ethiopic writing since its inception and continues to be in use by monastic communities today. In a very real sense, Brana is as much "Ethiopic" as are the letters written upon it. The Brana font is made available to help carry the Ethiopic legacy forward into the digital era.
To learn more about the author:
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You may read more about Amha Asfaw in the Senamirmir interview here:
http://senamirmir.com/interviews/theme/9-2003/aa/ -
Books by, and in honor of, Amha Asfaw are available from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Amha+Asfaw
Volunteers are welcome to contribute extensions to Brana. For example, kerning, optical enhancements for mobile devices, OpenType features, and glyph additions are all needed and welcomed.
The Brana font and its sources are distributed under the SIL Open Font License v1.1. A copy of the license is included in this repository.