Free Badlit or Suwat Bisaya font, and how to type Bisaya letters and words

Badlit or Suwat Binisaya or Surat/Suyat Bisaya is an ancient Philippine script.

Badlit Rounded Uno is a font or typeface inspired by Suwat Binisaya. I based the character designs from Bisaya researchers such as Minxie Villaver (Cebuano) and Rolando Borrinaga (Waray), as well as Spanish documents showing scripts and handwriting from the Visayas.

Though the scripts were used for Bisaya languages (Waray, Hiligaynon, Cebuano, etc…) you can still use them for other languages such as Tagalog and Ilokano. Many of the characters are similar to those found in Tagalog Baybayin, notably those found in the Doctrina Christiana (I share more about this in several paragraphs below).

You can download Badlit Rounded Uno here free! Feel free to donate a small amount to support my work!

In a post here about my first font “Niwang Uno”, I note that you can use Baybayin to write in different Philippine languages as well, including Tagalog and Bisaya/Cebuano. The basis of the design of Niwang Uno was Tagalog Baybayin scripts from the 16th century Spanish document Doctrina Christiana.

Before I get into the details of these documents, I’ll talk about how I made Badlit Rounded Uno.

How I made my first Badlit or Suwat Bisaya font

I made Badlit Rounded Uno with an iPad app called iFontMaker. I downloaded it in 2024 for ₱400 or $7. You can get it for iOS or Windows.

My first font was made with different software, a free trial of Glyphs Mini on my laptop in 2022. Because of other projects and my limited knowledge of typography design, I did not consider designing a new font until this year. After reading Surat Binisaya by Rolando Borrinaga, and taking a Badlit workshop by Minxie Villaver and Baba Bisaya, I regained an interest in making my next font.

I paid close attention to the Badlit characters (or glyphs) Minxie Villaver taught us. She shared the differences between Badlit and Baybayin with lots of sources and references, some of which I share in this post. When making this font, I also referred to a Spanish document published in 1637 called the Arte de la lengua Bisaya-Hiligayna de la isla de Panay. On page 270 is a list of some of the characters recorded there, and I noticed a few in common with Minxie’s characters. I noted them down and incorporated them into my new font.

Since my first font was thin and sharp (hence the Bisaya term “Niwang” or thin) I wanted to go the opposite direction with my next font and go fat and round.

Designing with iFontMaker was more challenging than designing with Glyphs Mini. Glyphs Mini allowed me to copy and paste vector designs from other apps like Adobe Illustrator into the canvas. At the time of this writing, iFontMaker does not allow you to copy and paste a vector file into it. Its pen tool is also a bit difficult to navigate, but I think with some practice I can improve with future fonts. Luckily you can still add an image, scan, or photo of your font made elsewhere, and then trace over it with iFontMaker. Which is what I ended up doing.

Designing Baybayin and Suwat Bisaya fonts with the Tagalog Unicode

The most important aspect of designing Baybayin or Suwat Bisaya fonts is finding an app that allows you to design for the Tagalog Unicode. In simplest terms, Unicode is a standard that assigns codes to characters. For example the Unicode for capital A is U+0041 and lowercase z is U+007A. Japanese characters, and others, all have Unicodes assigned to them. More and more characters from around the world are added to Unicode. The Tagalog Unicode became part of the standard in 2002, and as of 2024 it has 23 characters as of this writing. There are already Unicodes for other Philippine scripts such as Hanunoo, Buhid, and Tagbanwa.

Unfortunately, not all font design apps include the Tagalog Unicode, including the two that I have for iOS (iFontMaker and Fontself). The alternative to this is using ligatures, which I mention briefly later in this post.

Why use the name “badlit”?

I decided to name my new font Badlit, in reference to my first encounter with the term and the Bisaya script in Minxie’s workshop. She also mentioned that badlit means lines, and is referred to as such in the Vocabulario de la Lengua Bisaya by Matheo Sanchez published in 1711.

Badlit is also mentioned in the Arte de la lengua Bisaya-Hiligayna de la isla de Panay published in 1637. The writer, Alonso de Mentrida, defined “badlit” and “cudlit” as a line.

Both references don’t connect the term “badlit” to any sort of Philippine script, whether Bisaya or Tagalog. But in 1952 Badlit is finally connected to a script when Cebuano artist Jovito S. Abellana transcribed a dance-epic told to him by his grandfather Eulogio Sanchez. Eulogio not only told him the epic, he also taught him a script called Badlit, which Abellana uses in the story.

Unfortunately the epic (called “Aginid, Bayok sa Atong Tawarik” or “An Ode to Our History”) is not considered a primary source. Researcher Romola Ouano-Savellon reviewed the text and shares in a study in 2014, “Although there is reason to believe that such an epic existed, the recorded version has received many embellishments in the course of oral transmission over the years.”

Rolando Borrinaga, another researcher and author of Surat Binisaya, has stated he would rather not use the term “badlit”. He was cited in a Reddit post indicating that this “badlit” script was by a “hoax artist” named Jose Marco.

Despite the challenges of Badlit being the name of a Bisaya script, I decided to proceed with naming this font or typeface Badlit Rounded Uno. This is because other than the words Suyat, Surat, Sulat, and Suwat, Badlit seems to be another popular term used for Bisaya scripts on the internet. It is also an old Bisaya term found in the Spanish Bisaya dictionaries mentioned earlier: the Arte de la lengua Bisaya-Hiligayna de la isla de Panay in 1637 and the Vocabulario de la Lengua Bisaya in 1711.

There are other fonts as well called Badlit, including one designed by Akopito. References to badlit can be found at Omniglot.com, indicating that the term Badlit is still quite prominent online. Moving forward, I’ll be referring to the general Bisaya script as Suwat Bisaya. My font is called Badlit Rounded Uno, inspired by Suwat Bisaya. I’ll be using Suwat with a “w” because this is a word in my parent’s language Bolanon, a dialect of the Cebuano language.

Badlit or Suwat Bisaya letters vs. “Western” letters and writing

Baybayin and Suwat Bisaya are not alphabets, but abugidas. The English alphabet uses consonants and vowels like “A”, “B”, “C” and “E”, whereas the Philippine scripts use syllables and single vowels like “A” “Ba”, “Ka”, and “Nga”. An abugida is a writing system where consonants and vowels can be together as a unit, whereas an alphabet has vowels and consonants alone and separate by themselves.

My Badlit Rounded Uno typeface (without kudlits) total out to 17 characters. 14 are consonant-vowel syllables, and 3 are single vowels. These three vowel characters are the only ones that standalone and are separate by themselves. These are: “A”, “I/E”, and “O/U”.

There is only one character in both my font and Suwat Bisaya that has three letters, and that’s “NGA.”

Badlit Rounded Uno kudlit

Suwat Bisaya characters can be marked to change the vowel character. A mark is added on top of the character if the vowel is an I or E, or at the bottom if it is O or U. No kudlit means A. The “default” vowel sound or Suwat Bisaya character without kudlits, is A.

The traditional Filipino alphabet is pronounced in the same way the Suwat Bisaya abugida is pronounced.

When the characters with kudlits are included, the Badlit Rounded Uno typeface has 45 characters.

Writing in Suwat Bisaya (and Baybayin) the traditional way

All the characters in Suwat Bisaya represent consonant-vowel syllables, except for the lone vowels A, O/U, I/E, which have their own characters. There are no standalone consonants in the Suwat Bisaya abugida like B, K, or T, only syllables and vowels like A, Ba, Ka, or Nga.

Baybayin is the same way in Tagalog. When writing words like ISDA or SALAMIN, Filipinos back then wrote them like: I-DA and SA-LA-MI, dropping all the lone consonants in the word when spelled in Baybayin.

The traditional writing of Baybayin is evident in The Doctrina Christiana, one of the first printed books by the Spanish in the Philippines in the late 1500s. It used the traditional Baybayin where lone consonants were dropped. You can see the text here, and view or download a PDF of the actual print here.

In the graphic above highlighting an excerpt from the Doctrina Christiana, the first few Baybayin characters spell:

“A MA NA MI. NA SA LA NGI KA. I PA SA BA MO. A NGA LA MO.”

Which is the traditional Baybayin for the following Tagalog, including the dropped consonants:

“Ama namin. Nasa langit ka. Y pa samba mo ang ngalan mo.”

The “Ama Namin” today, in Tagalog, starts with the following:

“Ama namin, sumasalangit Ka. Sambahin ang ngalan mo…”

Which in English is a Catholic prayer, “Our Father”:

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…”

Filipinos were already accustomed to writing and reading their traditional way by dropping these consonants, until the Spanish came and added a new kudlit to the abugida to make lone consonants. This made it easier for the Spanish to read and write in Baybayin.

The Spanish kudlit & making lone consonants: Modified Baybayin and the Pamudpod

In the Spanish-Tagalog Doctrina Christiana the use of the Spanish kudlit was a way to alter Baybayin so that lone consonants in an actual pronunciation were not dropped from the writing itself. This way, it told the reader that the consonant in the Baybayin character should be read without its associated vowel. This was an attempt by Fr. Francisco Lopez in 1620, when he deemed the “Tagalog script” as “defective”.

For Baybayin, Lopez’s Spanish kudlit was originally a cross. This “vowel-canceling” kudlit, is also known today as Modified Baybayin.

For my Badlit Rounded Uno font I use a pamudpod or virama mark instead of a cross or X. In Cebuano it is called pagtangtang patingog, from the root words tangtang (to remove or unfasten) and tingog (sound or voice). It is inspired by the pagtangtang patingog introduced to us by Minxie, as well as the curved pamudpod used in Hanunoo or Surat Mangyan script, and virama marks used in related scripts such as Kawi. You can also see curved pamudpods in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, a 10th century document indicating pre-colonial Philippine location names.

What I like about the pamudpod is that it is easier to read characters without their associated “A” vowels. The Spanish kudlit, or even the “X” I use for my Niwang Uno Baybayin font can be hard to distinguish from “O/U” dot kudlits in smaller font sizes.

Writing non-Filipino words with Badlit Rounded Uno

Baybayin, Suyat, Suwat Bisaya, etc… was obviously used to write Filipino words in Filipino languages, such as in Tagalog, Bisaya, Kapampangan, or Ilokano. If you want to write a non-Filipino word in Baybayin/Suwat, translate it first into a Filipino language, and then write the Baybayin/Suwat of the translated word.

Names and proper nouns can still be written in Baybayin/Suwat, but they must be “Filipinized” using Filipino sounds and syllables. Instead of writing English or non-Filipino words letter-by-letter in Baybayin/Suwat, you must pay attention to the syllables and sounds of the word, and make that the basis for the Baybayin/Suwat spelling.

Take for example “tricycle”. The Filipinized word for this is “trisikel.”

Random trivia: some Filipino and Philippine English words have been included in the Oxford English dictionary, such as Balikbayan and gimmick.

If you want to write your name, you do the same. Use Filipino sounds and pronunciations of the name, and then spell it in the Badlit font.

Since Baybayin/Suwat was traditionally (and is) used to write in Filipino languages, native or second language speakers of Filipino languages will have the easiest time getting acquainted with writing in Baybayin/Suwat. So it helps to choose a Filipino language to learn while writing in Baybayin/Suwat.

Two of the things I ask myself before writing a non-Filipino word with Baybayin/Suwat are:

1. Is there a direct translation for the word in any Filipino language, or the Filipino language I want to write in? If yes, I will write that translation.
2. If the answer is no, I must write the word with Filipino pronunciation (how it sounds if said by a native Filipino-speaker).

How to type with Badlit Rounded Uno font

Download the font here, and then install it in your computer. It is a TrueType font. Once installed you should be able to see the font “Badlit Rounded Uno” in any of your word processing software.

Type your Badlit Rounded Uno words by spelling the Bisaya, Tagalog, etc… words out as you would with the English alphabet or Roman letters. For example, if you want to type the word “mahal kaayo” (Bisaya for very expensive) or “mahal kita” (Tagalog for I love you), simply type those same words normally. “Mahal” will show the necessary glyphs or characters for “MA,” “HA,” and “L,” etc… The necessary top and bottom kudlits for I/E and O/U, as well as the pagtangtang patingog, will show automatically.

Note: If you type and all you see are Badlit characters with pagtangtang patingog or curved vowel cancelling kudlits, this means you must turn on or activate “ligatures” in your app or software. If you are using Microsoft Word:

1. Type the words you want to spell, then right-click on the text.
2. Select Font, select the Advanced tab, and select “All” from the Ligatures dropdown box.
3. The kudlits should now appear.

If you want to write the NGA character, simply type N G A.

Ligatures

As you will see, even if you type Cebuano words such as “tiguwang” (old), “ngipon” (tooth), or “butangan” (to place, apply), the characters should adjust accordingly.

This is because I use a typographic feature called “ligatures”, or a single glyph that represents two or more characters. When you type the letter N at the end of “ngipon” you should see the pagtangtang patingog curved kudlit. When you type the letters N-G-I at the beginning of “ngipon”, you should see the necessary I/E ligature for NGI appear automatically.

Unfortunately issues arise when designing Baybayin or Suwat fonts with ligatures, which I share near the end of this post. Hoping that my next font will use the Tagalog Unicode as mentioned earlier, when I design my next font with an app that allows it.

Typing the “period” or “tuldok” brings you two downward slashes, which was a traditional way of ending a sentence or phrase in Baybayin/Suwat.

Lastly, many Baybayin/Suwat font designers differentiate the DA and RA characters using a slash on the RA character. I apply this same concept to Badlit Rounded Uno as well.

And there you have it. My first Badlit or Suwat Bisaya font, and a bit of guidance to help you along the way. Hope this font inspires you to write more Baybayin/Suwat. And if you’re a designer, you can design more fonts for the Baybayin/Suwat-writing community.

You can download it here for free. Feel free to donate a small amount to support my work!

Microsoft Word or Windows users

If you’re using Microsoft Word and/or Windows, and the kudlits do not appear when you try to type them, simply activate “ligatures” in Word. To enable ligatures:

1. Install the Badlit Rounded Uno font in your computer.
2. Open Microsoft Word.
3. Choose the Badlit Rounded Uno font.
4. Type any consonant, immediately followed by a vowel (a, o, u, e, or i).
5. If the kudlit does not appear, right-click on the text, select Font, select the Advanced tab, and select “All” from the Ligatures dropdown box.
6. The kudlits should now appear.
7. If you still have trouble, feel free to comment below, or email me at albert (at) filipeanut (dot) art.

Special thanks to Gerardo who commented about the issue in my Niwang Uno font.

Breaking of ligatures

I have observed two situations where ligatures “break” into their individual consonant characters with default cancel kudlits:

1. When typing the first word of the sentence, sometimes Microsoft Word or another application with “capitalize” the first letter automatically, breaking the ligature.
   1. EXAMPLE: “bahala ka” as a sentence might be automatically corrected by your app to capitalize the first letter, changing it to “Bahala ka”. This breaks the ligature for “ba”.
   2. SOLUTION: Either type in all caps, or replace the broken ligature with the “smaller case” character.
2. When increasing the tracking or kerning of your words typed in Badlit Rounded Uno, it will also break the ligatures if set too high/wide.
   1. EXAMPLE: You want to spread out the characters in “bahala ka” (ba-ha-la ka), but when you increase the tracking or kerning the ligatures break into “b-a-h-a-l-a k-a”.
   2. SOLUTION: Type each character separated by 1 space so: “ba (space) ha (space)…” Click and highlight one of these spaces and decrease the tracking or kerning of it to your desired amount. Click and highlight the adjusted space again, and copy it. Then replace the other remaining spaces by copy-pasting the adjusted space into them.

I hope to resolve these issues once I learn more about creating typefaces for abugidas. I will update this page once I get to do that.

Download Badlit Rounded Uno here for free. Feel free to donate a small amount to support my work!