Grocer's ₹

Ray Larabie

Since the Indian rupee symbol was introduced 5 years ago, has a casual style of writing it developed? After the euro symbol was introduced, it didn't take long for grocers to write it like a C with a single stroke. Has anyone seen handwritten rupee symbols in the wild? Are people drawing two separate strokes, including the top stroke without lifting the pen, not bothering with the top stroke at all, or something else?

John Hudson

My guess, based on typical ductus for writing Devanagari letters — in which the head line stroke is written last —, is that most people will write the R-like part, and then the two horizontal strokes.

James Puckett

What about majority of Indians who don't know how to write Devanagari?

John Hudson

A good question, but I think the same observation would true for writers of any of the northern scripts with head line, and it seems to me the most logical ductus in any case. It might be interesting to see if Gujurati writers omit the head line, since the origin of Gujurati script is in a hastily written mercantile form of Devanagari.

Kent Lew

I would certainly expect Gujarati writers to eventually (if not already) drop the headline, since the ra in Gujarati has no headline anyway.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if some handwritten forms come to include a knot at the turn, depending upon the regional Indic language and personal handwriting style.

kupfers

I think all the European grocers settled on a C with two strokes pretty soon after. 

Dan Reynolds

I agree with Indra. I have only ever seen either a C with two strokes, an E (definitely not a C with one stroke), or “Euro” written out. And I have lived in Europe since before the Euro was introduced. Also, as Indra told me today, I take too much vacation. So I have totally done my € research in all the various euro-using countries!

Type designers certainly do like to simplify the two strokes in € to a single stroke. Way more than actual users of the euro currency like to. But I have a difficult time imagining non-type-designer Indians doing that for the Rupee. The two horizontal strokes in € are not like the two strokes in the Rupee at all. Rather, the lower stroke is more like vertical stroke in the $, while the top stroke is more like “part of the S-shape itself” (in the dollar).

James, less than half of all Indians speak Hindi as their first language, but more that half speak a language that is written with a script that features a “headline.” And almost all Indians are exposed to Hindi in one way or another, be it in school, or just in the visual landscape of the country. Hindi is important, even if it is not one’s first language. (Also, the current Indian government seems to be very pro-Hindi, at least by what one can read in India’s English-language dailies.)

Ray Larabie

Thanks for the ₹ insights, everyone. If you spot an interesting ₹, please snap a photo and post it here.

Kalapi Gajjar-Bordawekar

In March 2014, I visited a type foundry (metal) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The owner showed me a freshly cast Rupee sort developed to fulfil an overwhelming demand for this character by local, short-run print shops.

Image: 

P.S.: I apologise for linking to my Instagram account. It is not intended as publicity, unfortunately that's the only photo I have available. Also, apologies for the image quality. 

KGB

Rob Keller

I'm a bit late to the discussion as I was digging through my more than 16,000 photos from India trying to find some handwritten ₹ symbols. I'm sure I've seen some (very rarely), but I'm not sure that I've photographed them. Eventually I only came across one image of a rupee sign drawn in chalk for a pub advert. I will make it a point of trying to find more soon...




While searching for ₹ in use, I came up with a few theories as to why they are so rarely seen handwritten.

1) Many products found in markets or small shops (places you'd most expect to see handmade signs) don't have prices written down. Customers must simply inquire about the cost (and of course, who is asking may or may not affect the price).

2) Most small items that are pre-packaged, processed, or manufactured have their prices printed directly on them (or on a sticker by the manufacture or importer). And since the price is already printed on the product, the shop feels no need to announce the price any further or more clearly, i.e. with tags or signs on the shelves.

3) Larger and more expensive products come from nicer or fancier shops, so they will almost always have their prices printed using actual typefaces (although probably without a matching ₹ symbol). They may or may not be directly on the packing, but it’s more likely there will be shelf tags and signs to indicate the price. (There are exceptions that fall into the first example – e.g. furniture shops that shows no prices, you must enquire about each item.)

* This idea is probably also related to the disappearance of hand-painted signs. Printed signs are considered more professional, no matter the quality, so places with printed signs are generally more expensive than those with painted ones (ironically, printed signs are often cheaper to produce than hand painted!)

These are all of course generalizations, and especially in India you will always find exceptions to the rules. But the point is mostly that in most places where you'd expect to see a handwritten price, you don't see a ₹ along side it.

I've assembled a few more photos of Rupee signs (or the lack of ₹) with some more explanations over at my blog (I thought it would be easier to update and maintain there).

The one main question I have is: Why is ₹ not used in many places where it could easily be added? I have many examples of prices without any currency symbol, prices written like 99/- or 99/. , and still many times ₹ is written as Rs. So why is the new symbol not yet adopted in these cases?

Finally in response to a few previous comments:

I'd be hesitant to assume that people would strongly modify the form based on their primary script – as in removing the top line or adding a knot. One exception to this might be with sloppy handwriting... The main place you'd see someone writing quickly and frequent ₹ signs would be on receipts (many and hand made here). But after going through dozens of receipts I have here, I've not found a single one contains a ₹.

Also, regarding the majority of Indians who don't know how to write Devanagari – this is a tricky argument. Hindi and Devanagari are everywhere, and basically every Indian that goes to school has at least a couple years of Hindi, I don't believe you can exactly consider Devanagari to be a foreign script for anyone here... True that many aren't fluent with speaking or writing, but I'm sure they could manage writing the rupee symbol as prescribed without any issues.

Erin McLaughlin

Awesome, Rob!! Thank you! Now release the other 15,993 photos!