What does Petrushka actually do?
1) Accurate keyboarding in Russian from typed or handwritten original.
2) Careful proofreading
3) Correct capitalisation, hyphenation and typographical details (Russian conventions are not the same as ours)
4) High standard of typographic design
5) Avoidance of potential cultural problems - images and concepts which work in English may be meaningless, ludicrous or even offensive to a Russian reader.

Couldn't my usual printer just buy some Russian fonts?
Theoretically yes, but he'll find it very hard going if he doesn't speak the language. Expect a big bill and lots of mistakes.

What about translation?
Translation should always be done by a native speaker of the 'target' language (DTI recommendation). We don't do it ourselves but have a number of real Russian professionals on call. But we are happy to translate any documents or correspondence from Russian into English.

Why is the Russian alphabet called Cyrillic?
It was supposedly invented by two monks called Cyril and Methodius in the 12th century, although some scholars now think it may be older than that. We are working on a History of the Cyrillic Alphabet site which will be accessible from this page.

Do any other languages use Cyrillic?
Yes, notably Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian. These are all fairly close to Russian, with a few alternative characters.We have no problem in typesetting them. Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian and Croatian are also related to Russian but use our western alphabet with special accents. Again, we can easily follow the general gist of the text, so even if we don't understand every word, we can typeset them without difficulty.

How do I contact Petrushka?
Call 01978 845912 or e-mail peter@typographics.co.uk

Return to Taylorgraphics home page