Of the 7000+ human languages in the world, between 50–100 are supported digitally, with 10 languages making up 82% of all internet content.

Adam Yeo's Bété Typeface emerges from a deep engagement with the Bété script, a syllabary of 448 pictographic signs invented in 1956 by the Ivorian artist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré to transcribe the Bété language of Côte d’Ivoire. Based on geometric forms inspired by everyday life, this handwritten system was conceived to preserve and promote local culture. More than a tool for writing, the script embodies a worldview, a rhythm, and a visual logic deeply rooted in Bété traditions.

This booklet is part of series that highlights the work of designers who are creating digital typefaces for languages or writing systems that are underrepresented or entirely unsupported within current operating systems, keyboards, and digital technologies at large. The process for developing such typefaces requires intensive research, often with ongoing community collaboration and feedback. By providing a digital application for these languages, the type designers featured in this series contribute to the longevity of a language, and in turn, its cultural knowledges, oral histories, and ways of thinking. The project is made in partnership with SILICON (the Stanford Initiative on Language Inclusion and Conservation in Old and New Media).

Designed by Adam Yeo & Sming Sming Books

Published by Sming Sming Books, 2026
Printed in an edition of 200 copies

Softcover, saddle-stitch binding, 28 pages, Risograph, 5 × 8 inches