Lowercase characters were introduced, and the use of westernized letter forms was mandated. The current form of the Cyrillic Alphabet saw first use in 1708 during Peter the Great of Russia’s reign. These changes streamlined the system by removing redundant or unnecessary characters and simplifying inscription methods. This system has gone through numerous reforms in Russia and other Cyrillic-using countries. The original Cyrillic alphabet had 24 Greek letters and 19 letters for sounds specific to the Slavic language. Glagothic was the basis used by the First Bulgarian Empire to create this Eastern European lettering system in 10th Century A.D. This was initially meant to translate Greek religious texts to a system the Slavs can use. Cyril, with his brother, Methodius, created the first Slavic alphabet – the Glagothic. The answer to the origins of the Cyrillic Alphabet lies in its name. If you want to specialize in Cyrillic typography, including various Slavic languages is a plus. That’s why it pays to include support for this linguistic system when creating design elements, like fonts. Believe it or not, about 250 million people use Cyrillic, either as a national language or as an alphabet.
