We have a fairly mature grasp of the structure of our first language or languages by the time we start learning to read and write, which has to be done through explicit instruction. Language exists independently of writing; writing is simply a technology and a practice that some societies use and others do not.

It seems that however state institutions enact power, a bureaucratic arsenal of documents is deployed—a kind of performance in which a cast of Latin typefaces naturally and dutifully inscribe the state’s claims to a standard of incontestable legibility. This sense of legibility (of bodies, natural resources, land) is broader than the clarity of letterforms on a page, but the need for typographic legibility pervades attempts to establish any novel unit of legibility..

Localised versions of Cooper Black that include Vietnamese characters have been created and widely distributed for free. For example, VNI-Cooper is a version developed by VNI Software Company, a California-based company founded by Hồ Thành Việt in 1987 that focuses on developing encodings and popular input methods.