# Emil Yakupov

> Emil Yakupov (1957–2014) was a co-founder and the first CEO of Paratype. Trained in engineering and materials research, he moved into digital typography through ParaGraph and helped establish Paratype as an independent company in 1998. His work included public fonts supporting minority-language Cyrillic alphabets, technical research, international foundry relationships and typography events.

- **Role:** Type-foundry co-founder, executive and engineer
- **Organizations:** Paratype, ParaGraph International, Research Institute for Synthetic Fibre, Tver
- **From:** Ufa, Soviet Union
- **Education:** Moscow Institute of Management, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Leningrad Institute of Textile and Light Industry named after S. M. Kirov
- **Known for:** Co-founded Paratype in 1998 and led it until 2014., Paratype’s font library grew sixfold during his leadership., Helped lead public-font work supporting minority-language Cyrillic alphabets.

## Career timeline

- **1957** — Born in Ufa on 22 March.
- **1987** — Completed a Candidate of Technical Sciences dissertation on determining deformation characteristics of threads using an automated measurement system.
- **Before 1998** — Worked in computer modelling at the Research Institute for Synthetic Fibre in Tver, later on independent computing projects and at ParaGraph.
- **1998** — Co-founded Paratype as an independent successor to ParaGraph’s type department; served as its first director.
- **1999** — Organised the Kyrillitsa’99 type competition with Vladimir Yefimov.
- **2003** — Co-authored Binary bitmap image transforms for computer font hinting with Leonid Mestetskii.
- **2004** — Served on the ATypI Prague conference programme planning committee.
- **2008** — Helped bring the ATypI conference to Saint Petersburg.
- **2009–2010** — Led the public-font project that included PT Sans and PT Serif.
- **2013** — Gave a SHANDESIGN interview at Serebro Nabora on 9 November.
- **2014** — Died on 25 February; his leadership of Paratype ended.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Paratype in 1998 and led it until 2014.
- Paratype’s font library grew sixfold during his leadership.
- Helped lead public-font work supporting minority-language Cyrillic alphabets.
- Built relationships between Paratype and international type foundries.
- Contributed to automatic font-hinting research and international typography events.

## Latest updates

- **2024-02** — Paratype published a retrospective biography and colleagues’ recollections of its first director.
- **2024-03** — Paratype published an edited transcript of Yakupov’s November 2013 SHANDESIGN interview.

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/emil-yakupov
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21