history of arabic type evolution

21413 History of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930primes till present laquo 29LT BLOG | Arabic Type Designer | Arabic Fonts | Arabic Typography amp Graphic Desihellip

29letterswordpresscom20070528arabic-type-history 141

29LT BLOG | Arabic Type Designer | Arabic Fonts | Arabic Typography amp Graphic Design |Pascal ZoghbiArabic Type Arabic type Designer Arabic Graphic Designer

History of Arabic Type Evolution from the1930primes till present

May 28 2007 1271 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TRADITIONAL ARABIC TYPEmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-

11 The origin of the Arabic script goes back to the first alphabet created by the PhoeniciansThe Phoenicians were living on the coastal areas of Lebanon Palestine and Syria Since thePhoenicians were traders sailing throughout the Mediterranean their alphabet influenced allMediterranean cultures and nations The fact that the Middle East was located at the center of theAncient World between East and West also had played an essential role in the spread of thePhoeniciansrsquo alphabet That is why the Phoenician alphabet is the mother of both Latin andArabic scripts

In 1300 BC the early Phoenician alphabet consisting of 22 consonants without capitals lettersand written from right to left was born in the city of Byblos on the coast of Lebanon In 1000 BCthe Aramaic alphabet originated from the Phoenician alphabet in Aram Syria and Mesopotamiawhich represented the language of the Arameans In 100 BC the Nabatean script was born in thecity of Petra north of the Red Sea in present-day Jordan and spread throughout the Middle EeastIn 100 AD the Syriac alphabet with 22 letters also developed from the Aramaic was created inMesopotamia It was only during the middle of the first century that the early Arabic alphabetbegan to appear in Kufa Iraq The Old Kufi or Archaic Kufi consisted of about 17 letterformswithout diacritic dots or accents Afterwards the diacritic dots and accents were added to helpreaders with pronunciation and the set of Arabic letters rose to 29 including the Hamza Withthe birth of Islam the Qurrsquoan became the driving force behind the unification of all Arabic scriptsfound in Arabia One unified well-structured Arabic script with 29 letters was developed for thewriting of the holy scripts of the Qurrsquoan in the seventh century AD Primarily the Qurrsquoan was



written with the Quranic Kufi script and later it with the Quranic Naskh style From its creationin the Arabian Peninsula the Arabic alphabet spread to all of the Middle East North Africa andeven as far as Spain due to Islamic conquests Since Arabic was the language of the Qurrsquoan hencethe language of God all the occupied nations were forced to use the Arabic language

12 Several Arabic calligraphic styles developed in various Arabian cities with different writingtechniques and writing tools The most known Arabic calligraphic styles are



121Kufi (Old Kufi and Ornamented Geometric Kufi) the name ldquoKufirdquo originated from thecity Kufa in Iraq122Thuluth the name Thuluthrdquo originated from the names of several bamboo sticks that wereused as writing tools123Diwani and Diwani Djeli The ldquoDiwanrdquo style developed during the Ottoman Empire andthe name comes from the political documents called ldquoDiwanrdquo in Arabic124 Naskh the Ottoman Empire also gave rise to the ldquoNaskhrdquo style ldquoNaskhrdquo is named afterthe lsquonaskhrsquo action when the scribes copied Arabic text125 Persian named after the Persian language126 Ruqaa the name originated from the leather ldquoRuqaardquo that the script was written on127 Maghreacutebi is a stylized Kufi script developed in Morocco

Today most of the text typefaces available are based on the Naskh or the Thuluth Style Theother styles like the Kufi Diwani and Maghreacutebi are found in display typefaces

During the industrial revolution in Europe and the invention of movable type several Arabictypefaces were created in France Italy England Germany Spain and the Netherlands betweenthe 16th century and 18th centuries The first Turkish press using Arabic printing type was foundin 1727 in Istanbul and the first Middle-Eastern Arabic printing press was built in a Christianmonastery in Mount Lebanon in 1733 where the first Arabic book was published in 1735

mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-

2 BRIEF ASPECTS OF ARABIC TYPEmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-

21 The Arabic Alphabet consists of 29 consonants and 11 vocalization marks in the shape ofaccents The structure of the alphabet has only 19 basic shapes However since the letters changetheir shape according to their position in the wordmdashinitial medial final or isolatedmdashthen the setof glyphs will add up to 106 23 letters have four alternative shapes and 7 letters have twoalternative shapes If we add the two indispensable ligatures of Lam-Alef then the number will be108 Finally since the Arabic alphabet is also used in some non-Arab languages more alterationsto the letter were introduced to represent all the additional non-Arabic phonetics that brings thenumber of glyphs up to 130 Moreover the number of glyphs can further increase if we also



count all kinds of combinations within the letters if the typeface needs to fully mimic thecalligraphic handwritten Arabic script So according to each typeface the number of glyphs canstart with 130 and end in the hundreds

22 The following image shows the four developing layers of the Arabic script The firstline shows only the basic shapes of the letters The second line illustrates the added diacritic dotson some letters that require it The third line adds the vocalization marks for better pronunciationThe final line shows a decorated sentence where some decorative elements were added to thescript to make it more elegant or holy Usually in everyday text only the diacritic dots and somevocalization marks will be added to the script The decorative elements will only be added todisplay words or sentences



The four typographic elements of the Arabic script are 1 Basic letterforms 2 Diacritic Dots 3Vocalization marks 4 Decorative elements without mentioning the numerals punctuationmarks and symbols


3 THE MODERN HISTORY OF ARABIC TYPE FROM THE 30rsquoS TILL PRESENTmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-

IIn 1936 and 1938 the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo held a conference for thepurpose of the standardization of non-Arabic phonemes due to translation from English Frenchor other languages The solution was to add some diacritic dots on some letters and give it the



proper phoneme In 1945 the Academy launched a worldwide competition to reform andsimplify Arabic to make it easier to learn read and write it Between 1947 and 1958 manyproposals were submitted to the Academy but none of them was accepted Between 1955 and1959 the Academy assessed the last batch of submitted projects and also rejected all of them Thecommittee then decided to limit the changes or simplification to three basic typographic rules 1Standardization of additional Arabic letters that represent non-Arabic sounds 2 Obligatoryvocalization marks for educational books 3 Reduction in the number of Arabic characters from300 to 169 to only consist of the basic variation forms of the letter and some indispensableligatures and letter connectionsIt was during the post-World War II period when most Arab nations were becoming independentfrom European colonial powers and building their own infrastructure that the Academy of theArabic Language began to reflect on the educational social and technological development in theArab nations and the need for a new simplified Arabic script to fit with new type techniques Atthis time these new type techniques were essentially the typewriter and the typesetting machineswith movable type

The Academy categorized the projects into three groups1 Projects that broke all the characteristics of the Arabic script and used the Latin letters2 Projects that converted the vocalization forms of the vowels into extra letters3 Projects that proposed a single letterform for each letter making detached Arabic characters tosuit the typewriter and the requirements of movable type

The following projects are the most interesting proposals

31 The Unified Arabic trade typeface by Nasri Khattar (1911-1998) of Lebanon wasproposed in 1947 A dual American-Lebanese national Mr Khattar was an architect typedesigner inventor painter sculptor and poet After finishing his architechural apprenticeship as adisciple with the great American architect of the 20th century Frank Lloyd Wright Mr Khattarworked as an Arabic consultant to IBM in the fifties and architect Arabic calligrapher andArabist to Arab-American Oil Company (Aramco) in New York City 1950-1957 During thistime he made innumerable calligraphic works for both Aramco and the Arabs He received aFord Foundation grant for the years 1958-1961 to promote his ldquoUnified Arabic UArdquo systemUnified Arabic is Mr Khattarrsquos Arabic type system that simplifies the printing and teaching ofArabic Urdu Farsi and other languages utilizing the Arabic alphabetAs he continued to work on Unified Arabic Mr Khattar designed new Arabic typefaces some ofwhich are ldquoUnifiedrdquo but also designed to automatically connect He also practiced architectureand lectured at the American University of BeirutIn 1986 Reverend Dennis Hilgendorg and Dr Ben Wood Director of Educational Research atColumbia University nominated Mr Khattar for the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifersquos visionaryachievements and their vast implications for the fields of linguistics literacy printing computersand telecommunications



Four characteristics summarize this unique project1 A single glyph per letter and detached set type2 Each letter is uniquely different from the other and at the same time retaining the Arabictraditional form3 The counter forms are wide and open for higher legibility especially in small sizes4 The type was designed with a large loop height (x-height) and low ascenders and descenders



Today his daughter Camille Khattar Hedrick continues to promote his work especially his latertypefaces that are designed to connect while at the same time applying the concept of UnifiedArabic one glyph per letter yet connected not detached

32 The Latinizing Arabic by Yahya Boutemeacutene in 1952 The project consisted of constructingthe Arabic letter from the Latin alphabet This project also suggested that the type will bedetached with Latin typographic structures like x-height ascenders descenders and spacing andkerning to mention but a few But this proposal broke all traditions of Arabic type and was purelyLatinized which can never be accepted

33 The Vocalization Marks as extra letters by Ali Al Gharim in 1952 The project suggestedthat each vocalization mark be drawn as additional letters to the Arabic script and be addedwithin the writing



34 Yakout type by Nahib Jaroudi from Linotype in 1956Yakout was designed in a similarmanner to Arabic typewriter fonts created during this period it used a limited range ofletterforms to represent the full Arabic character set The resultant style of type design becameknown as ldquoSimplified Arabicrdquo

The initial and medial glyphs of each letter were replaced with one glyph and the final andisolated glyphs of each letter were replaced or merged into one glyph (except for a few letters likethe ldquoAinrdquo where all initial medial final and isolated forms were kept since they are differentlydrawn) This enabled the character set to be reduced and made it more compatible with theArabic typesetting machines typewriters of the time The font was produced for hot-metaltypesetting being specifically intended to function as newspaper text With the dual intention offitting the Arabic script onto a Linotype line-casting machine for setting type for rotary printingand of maximizing keying speeds in creating copy for daily newspapers much effort wasconcentrated on reducing the normal Arabic character set of over 100 characters



The provenance can be seen from an interesting on-line article by Fiona Ross entitled ldquoNon-LatinType Design at Linotyperdquo

35 The ASV-CODAR (Arabe Standard Voyelleacute ndash Codage Arabe) by Lakhdar Ghazal fromMorocco in 1958 This project met the same fate as all other proposals and was rejected by theAcademy in Cairo However this was the only project that underwent development andproduction because it was adopted by the Moroccan government which encouraged theestablishment of the Institut drsquoEtudes et de Recherches pour lrsquoArabisation in 1960 The aim of thetypeface was to make the Arabic type easily usable for all modern media Nowadays this font isthe only digitized typeface of all those submitted to the Academy thanks to Dr Ghazal and theMoroccan government



The reason why ASV-Codar was developed is that unlike the previously mentioned proposals itsolved the technical problem of simplifying the script and at the same time respected the spirit ofthe Arabic script Consequently this project was a social and technological achievement

The Characteristics of ASV-Codar are1 One drawn shape per basic letter set but which can at the same time accommodate aconnecting or ending shape according to its position in the word This solution saved the typefrom being detached by making the number of glyphs drawn to the basic regular letters2 Three kinds of ending tails that fit all letters These ending tails are added to letters that neededthem if they are positioned at the end of the word3 The vocalization marks are placed on the connecting glyph (Kashida) between the letters andnot on above or below the letterforms This solution was conceived so as not to draw each letterseveral times with different vocalization marks for each one

36 The Lebanese Type by Saiumld Akl in Lebanon in the 60s Saiumld Akl is a proud Lebaneselinguist poet and philosopher He is a true Lebanese person He loves Lebanon and knows itshistory well He considers the Lebanese the ancestors of the Phoenicians and that we must use theLatin alphabet since it is a direct descendant of the Phoenician alphabet and not the Arabic scriptwhich is full of problems and complicated His idea was applied in the creation of the Lebanese



Type that can be a universal type for all languages of the world and not only Arabic Since SaiumldAkl was not a type designer he just took the typeface lsquoTimesrsquo (which is the most common LatinSerif on all computer platforms) and constructed his alphabet Saiumld Akl expressed his political andsocial thoughts about Lebanon with a new way of writing Lebanese In this period of his life hewas a very famous poet and philosopher throughout the Arab world He wanted to express theidea that Lebanon is a nation that speaks the Arabic language butis not an Arab nation That iswhy he made his new type based on the Latin script and not the Arabic although both scriptsdescended from the Phoenician alphabet He wanted a Lebanon with less connection to the ArabIslamic world He wanted a unique type and language for Lebanon

You can also read an article about the topic on NOW Lebanon websiteThe Lebanese Type Saiumld Akl

361 The Theory of the Lebanese TypeTrue creation is by no means the fruit of chance but rather the child of purpose That is what Aklwas unknowingly set to prove with a brand new revolutionary concept the ldquoLebanese Typerdquo Theidea originated in his youth when he wondered about the point of having such a complicatedArabic alphabet It was first put into practice in the early 1930s However it was not until 1961that it took its final shapeSaiumld Akl found it hard to choose a specific source of inspiration since he was changing the veryconcept of the alphabet Its basis was that each letter had one and only one form andpronunciation that is each phoneme had only one physical representation The ultimate aim wasto simplify the multiple forms relating to a sound Therefore not only was he driven by thephonetic need but also by sheer logic to render the representation easier without altering thephoneme and the ldquoLebanese Typerdquo would be accessible to all After all he thought didnrsquot it alltake root with our ancestors the Phoenicians and their prosperous city of Byblos The Cadmusrsquoalphabet set sail from the shores of Lebanon to spread to the whole world Hence almost all thealphabets today are derived from the Phoenician except the Chinese and Japanese that still rely oncryptograms Thus we begin to get a rough answer to the question How come the Latinalphabet is the ancestor of the ldquoLebanese Typerdquo and not the Phoenician Is it not some kind ofreason against its homeland ldquoAbsolutely notrdquo said Akl ldquofor it is all about logic and simplicity offormsrdquo Moreover for Akl Latin was not the exclusive source since he was also inspired by theArabic alphabet and created some more characters from sheer reason to accommodate all knownphonemes

362 Characteristics of the Lebanese Type1 Avoidance of diacritic dots The little dots under or above 12 Arabic letters were considered asdefying all principles of logic and aesthetics especially when compared to the Latin Saiumld Akl



considered each character as the holder of a self-value that needs no additional shaping orrefinement2 Avoidance of accents Accents are far worse than the previous mentioned for if some lettersmanaged to break the bond of dots they can never be set free from these indications thatdetermine the grammatical function of Arabic words Hence doesnrsquot switching from accents totheir graphic representation constitute a more suitable solution for Arabic3 Uniformity in the size of the letters in Arabic letters start above on or below any givenhorizontal line Furthermore the width of each letter varies slightly which leads to greatdifficulties in writing Hence the ldquoLebanese Typerdquo found an elegant solution which consists ofonly two closely shaped representations (upper and lowercase) for each letter4 Separated or detached letters letter representation in Arabic differs given its position in theword The new type separated them thus giving each character its own personality and valueUniqueness in the relation between shape and character seems absolutely necessary in order toavoid the chaos of too many forms of one letter5 One letter for each vowel and phoneme it is obvious that in the Lebanese Typerdquo there is nosuch thing as the double vowels sounds of Latin since its basic principles is based on theuniqueness of each character representing only one phoneme that is one and only one characterfor each phoneme6 Lettersrsquo spirit as the Latin as mentioned earlier Saiumld Aklrsquos main source of inspiration was theLatin alphabet Thus it stands to reason that most of the typeface looks like Latin even in theletters that Saiumld invented as it turned out that their shapes were the most obedient to the rule ofharmony

mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-

From the 1960s until the late 1980s the transition from analog to digital due to thecomputerrsquos limitations at that time the Arabic script was constantly faced withproblems like the connections of the letters the limited character set and the right to leftdirection of writing It was not the concept of the emerging computer programmingtechnology as such that caused the problems Certainly there were technical limitations mainlyrelated to the display and more acutely to printing technology But the real problem was ndash and isndash the lack of knowledge of curiosity about and to some extent even love for the Arabic writingsystem in the Western world and among Western-trained Arabs ndash according to Thomas Milo ofDecoType

That is why Arabic was ndash and is ndash always mainly discussed in terms of the need for simplificationParadoxically from the mid-1990s to our present day computer technology has evolved in a wayto find solutions for all the problems There is the extended Arabic character set of Unicode andthe invention of smart font technology like OpenType Font supporting Arabic type on all majorcomputer platforms (Mac OSX Windows NT and later) that handle most of the problems

Unicode extends the coverage of Arabic to include Persian Urdu ndash in fact theoretically all otherArabic-based languages A great advantage of Unicode is that it blends Arabic seamlessly intotexts typeset in any other script ndash Latin Russian Chinese you name it

However Unicode only defines abstract nominal letters ndash no more It does not define typographictechnology let alone solve typographic problems Therefore OpenType technology wasdeveloped to deal with the typographical tsunami caused by Unicode and global computing ingeneral Improved facilities for Arabic were a by-product not a design goal



37 DecoType (DT) Thomas Milo The Netherlands in 1985 Before the invention ofOpenType some companies pioneered solutions for Arabic in the context of global computingand Unicode The company DecoType (DT) represented by Thomas Milo is an example he andhis team (including Peter Somers and Mirjam Somers) invented the Arabic Calligraphic EngineACE (around 1985) In fact ACE controlled the first Smart Font based on the traditional ruqahstyle

While the early Windows font technology was too primitive in the early lsquo90rsquos to deal with Arabictypesetting an interim solution was found At the request of Microsoft a much simplified andcompromised Naskh and Thuluth were developed for use with its fixed font tables since MScould not ndash yet ndash cope with complex Arabic These fonts were NOT driven by ACE The P in DTPwas a pun to mark this low-quality non-ACE derivative DTP Naskh and Thuluth were madearound 1992-3

Almost simultaneously Microsoft Middle East Product Development Department (MEPD) askedDecoType to create ACE-based OLE-servers for DT Ruqah and DT Naskh This all happened wellbefore the now ubiquitous OpenType was even conceived (Microsoft as a company wasnrsquot yetconnected to the internet in these days) DecoTypersquos ACE technology became the de facto proofof concept for smart font technology paving the way for what was to become OpenType

Real ACE fonts were marketed as DT OLE-servers (now Tasmeem fonts) NON-ACE fonts byDecoType are marketed as DTP fonts (PostScript TrueType OpenType) ACE was developed tomimic existing high-end Arabic typography ndash which in turn is of course deeply rooted in thecalligraphic tradition

Thomas Milo served as an Arabic speaking Officer in a Dutch army unit detached to UNIFIL inSouthern Lebanon His background is in Slavic and Turkic linguistics plus Arabic in asupporting role Before and after Lebanon he travelled extensively in Eastern Europe and theMiddle East

For some impressions of his stint with UNIFIL herersquos an interview and literatureThomas Milo on UNIFILVredesmacht in Libanon

After his return from the Lebanon he discovered the technical problems in producing accurateArabic typography As a linguistic scholar he decided to build his own technology for his Arabictypesetting He wanted to create the Arabic that he loved and not the badly digitized Arabic thatis found in the market Gradually it dawned on him that only a solid understanding of Arabiccalligraphy provides the key to the solution After an initial failure with naskh script that he foundtoo dazzling and complex he analysed ruqah instead Work on naskh started 10 years later andtook another 10 years to complete

With hindsight one can conclude that the project of his team was the first and for a long time theonly one to try and document the reality of Arabic as it has functioned over the centuries



The illustration shows the structural difference between ACE-driven (Tasmeem) and OT Table-driven DTP Naskh The Tasmeem examples follow the traditional structure the DTP examples arelow-grade hybrids ndash neither traditional nor innovative

In 2007 DecoType with association with Winsoft launched Tasmeem

According to the WinSoft-DecoType sales brochures the Tasmeem concept is a dream come trueIt integrates traditional calligraphy with modern typefaces giving everybody the freedom theywant It makes Adobe InDesign Middle Eastern Version the most comprehensive Arabic designtool in the industry Tasmeem provides designers and publishers of Arabic books theindispensable high-quality typesetting for literary and academic productions Tasmeem offersprofessional tools to shape prose poetry traditional and educational textshellip

Continue reading at the Winsoft website or at the ldquoCalligraphy written by hand or set on thecomputerrdquo post on my blog I addition this monthrsquos cover story in Saudi Aramco Worldmagazine is dedicated to Tasmeem

38 The Simplified Arabic Type by Mourad Boutros in The United Kingdom in 1993



Boutros also focused on the idea that Arabic must embark on the process of becoming detachedlike the journey the Latin script took hundreds of years before He made a font based on theNaskh structure with two phases The first phase will be used firstly in the Arab nations for severalyears until the people are familiar with it and afterwards they will start using phase two wherethe letters are completely detached Phase one is also based on one shape per letter but the letterstouch each other on the baseline with close tracking Phase two is simply making the trackingwider hence the letters will be detached

What is interesting about Mouradrsquos proposal is that it took into account a transitional phase Sohe was truly trying to solve a social problem without ignoring the technical aspect of makingArabic easier to handle by the computer and software which are initially built only for the Latinscript He wanted to make Arabic detached and simple but at the same time he planned for theacceptance of the type by the people

39 The Mutamathil Type by Saad Abulhab in The United States of America in 1999 Saadis the latest person to try to develop detached Arabic type in recent years He also focused on theidea that the type must be detached but what he newly introduced is a bi-directional typesuggesting that Arabic can be written from right to left as usual and (if necessary) can be alsowritten and read from left to right as the Latin alphabet So his approach will not only solve theproblem of connected letters and changing letterforms according to their position but also theproblem of having special Arabic software or plug-in that enables the writing from right to leftThe questions remain as to the limit of simplification and if the Arabic people would accept thefont and are able to read it The letters in the bi-directional ldquoMutamathil Mutlaqrdquo type aresymmetrical and geometric with shapes that are mirrored in the middle of the letter which makesthe letters look so stiff and rigid with respect to the flowing cursive aspect of the Arabic script



Personally I think that the idea behind the font is intelligent but the design of the letters is notgood at all The letters are constructed out of geometric shapes to such an extent that it madethem lose all their Arabic characteristics The problem is that Saad only solved the technical issueof the Arabic script but completely destroyed the historical and aesthetical value of Arabic


4 WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF ARABIC TYPEFACESThe following question was asked in the TypoGraphic Beirut 2005 conference that took place in Aprilin the Lebanese American University mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-

There are three main directions in the Arabic type design world today The first direction isrepresented by Arabic type designers and typographers who are working on simplifying theArabic script and making it detached The second direction is backed up by conservativetraditional Arabic type designers who state that the Arabic does not need to be simplified anymore since the technology is now well developed to accommodate all the needs and problems ofArabic calligraphic typefaces The third direction is represented by several contemporary Arabictype designers whose work deals with making modern Arabic typefaces that are legible andfriendly to everyday applications or to the needs of their clients An example of the first group isSaad Abulhab the second group is Thomas Milo and the third group includes severalindependent Arabic type designers such aslike Nadine Chahine Titus Nemeth Tim HollowayAbbar Yassar Ihsan Al-Hammouri Mohamed Hacen as well as myself We are creating newmodern Arabic typefaces Names and links of known independent Arabic type designers andArabic type foundries are listed in the section below

Whatever the direction or the intentions behind each new Arabic typeface there is a hugedemand for new Arabic fonts New Arabic fonts are needed for41 Everyday Arabic graphic design and typography projects42 Corporate Arabic fonts for Arabic established companies or newspapers43 Arabic companion fonts for existing Latin fonts



Professional graphic designers and students are always asking for new Arabic fonts Before thelaunch of Adobe InDesign ME versions and the development of the OpenType Arabic fonts mostof Arabic typographers used Quark AXt and were limited to AXt Arabic fonts Until now AXtfonts are the most used even though the users of Quark AXt are diminishing The reason for this isthere are not so many new OpenType Arabic fonts for them to use instead of AXt fonts Over thelast few years the awareness about Arabic type and the need for new fonts was translated in therise of Arabic Type Foundries and young contemporary independent Arabic type designersOver the past three years Nadine Chahine Titus Nemeth and I have graduated with Masters inType Design and are specialized in Arabic type The three of us now are working and developingnew Arabic fonts that are starting to appear in the market place

The Khatt Foundation lsquoTypographic Matchmakingrsquo project is an example about the need forArabic type companions for existing Latin typefaces (you can read more about the TypographicMatchmaking project and the Khatt foundation in the lsquoTypographic Matchmaking Arabic typewith a Dutch flavorrsquo post on my blog or on the Khatt Foundation website) This is due to the factthat many publications in the Arabic nations are bi-lingual or tri-lingual (Arabic English andfrench) Another reasons is that most of the international companies how are opening newbranches in any of the Arab nations need an Arabic corporate font that will work with their ownLatin corporate font

Other important typographic events that contributed to the growing awareness of Arabic typeand calligraphy are TypoGraphicBeirut conference The Kitabat conference The LinotypersquosFirst Arabic Type Competition and Khatt Kufi amp Kaffiya symposium

Corporate Arabic fonts are also in need for new Arabic companies whichare now building theirnew identities Some examples are banks communication companies organization and non-profits Furthermore all Arabic newspapers at the present time are asking for corporate fontsrenewing their layouts and asking for new modern Arabic fonts and new rising Arabicnewspapers are creating their young fresh identities with new contemporary corporate Arabicfonts

At present the Arabic type industry is booming and it will stay this way for several years longerAwareness about Arabic type is growing in the Arab nations and the number of professionalArabic type designers is also growing


5 INDEPENDENT ARABIC TYPE DESIGNERS AND ARABIC TYPE FOUNDRIESmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-

Traditional established Arabic type foundriesBoutros (Mourad Boutros)Sakkal (Mamoun Sakkal)AvantType (Habib Khoury)DecoType (Thomas MiloMirjam Somers amp Peter Somers)Layout (AXt Quark)GraphEast



New Contemporary Arabic Type DesignersAbbar Yazzar (Syria)Mohamed Hacen (Mauritania) Nadine Chahine (Lebanon)Pascal Zoghbi (Lebanon)Titus Nemeth (Austria)

Non-Arab Arabic Type Designers amp Type Foundries that have created Arabic fontsTim Hollaway Fiona Ross (UK) and John Hudson (Canada)Kris Holmes(USA) amp Chuck BigelowThomas Milo Mirjam Somers amp Peter Somers (The Netherlands)Titus Nemeth (Austria)ParaType (Russia)

International Type Foundries that also develop Arabic fonts beside Latin fontsLinotypeMonotypeAdobeParaType (Russia)


Bibliography References amp Illustrations Creditsmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-

1 Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFaregraves Arabic Typography Saqi Books 2001

2 Ghan Alani Initiation Calligraphie Arabe Aditions Fleurus 2001

3 Abdelkebir Khatibi Mohammed Sijelmassi The Splendour of Islamic Calligraphy Thames ampHudson 2001

4 Hassan Massoudy Calligraphie Arabe Vivante Flammarion 1999

5 Arabic Script and Typography a brief historical overview by Thomas Milo (in LanguageCulture Type international type design in the age of Unicode ed John D Berry ATypI-Graphis2002)John D

6 Arabic for Designers Mourad Boutros Mark Batty Publisher 2006

7 Saad AbulhabThe Mutamathil Type Style Visible Language 383 2004

8 Paul Khera Has Yassar Abbar developed the Arab worldrsquos answer to Univers Eye Magazine50 2003

9 Hans Juumlrg Hunziker untitle booklet about his arabic type work in Morocco Switzerland

10 Rafic Rouhana Revolution of the Letter with Saiid Akl Lebanese university Lebanon 1996

11 Kamal Al-Baba Rouh al-khatt al-arabi



12 httpwwwunifiedarabicalphabetcom

13 httpwwwarabeticscom

14 httpwwwdecotypecom

15 httpwwwwinsofteu

16 httpwwwarabicfontscom


Pascal Zoghbi May 2007This article is part of my dissertation that i have wrote during my Master of Design studies atType]Media 0506 KABK The Netherlandsmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash-

Categories Arabic Calligraphy Arabic Fonts Arabic Typography Lebanese Type Lebanon MyArabic Type Pascal Zoghbi Type Type Pics

127 comments Post your own or leave a trackbackTrackback URL

1 AzizMostafa saysMay 28 2007 at 644 pmInteresting + InformativeMany Thanks + Flowers

Reply2 Saad Abulhab says

June 3 2007 at 551 pmPascal Congratulations for your master degree and for the nice article

In my article introducing Mutamathil I actually clarified in several places that my three typeswere only ldquoprototypesrdquo So I do partially agree with your comments about design but I thinkthat the main Arabic characteristics (not aesthetical) were preserved horizontality andindividual letters overall shapes

Saad Abulhab

Reply3 pascal Zoghbi says

June 4 2007 at 820 amHello SaadThanks for the clarification about the sentence said by the prophet Muhammad amp thank youfor your comment concerning your Mutamathil type I am looking forward for the new



versions of the type where the characteristics of the Arabic letters are preserved as much aspossible even though they are detached (Nasri Khatterrsquos Unified type can be a starting point)

Concerning detached Arabic fonts in general well I once created an Arabic detached fontwhen I was doing my BA senior project at NDU Lebanon and I did several logotypes forcompanied or organizations with detached Arabic letters I am not against detached Arabictype but I do not see it as text type I see it more as a logotype of few letters or a display typeused in titleshellip But it will be too difficult for the Arabic readers to read an Arabic detachedtype easily

Best regards

Pascal

Reply4 hilda moucharrafieh says

June 11 2007 at 105 pmhey Pascal

havenrsquot been on your website for some time but I visited it lately and really liked what yoursquovebeen into and upto I love your sharing spirit especially that irsquove been noticing how people inthis region get overprotective over their material and keep the info to themselves that doesntlead neither to progression of self nor to that of society and therefore i salute you for yourefforts

also noticed the effect of your teaching experience sometimes i feel that my teachers arebenefitting more than i am during our interaction ofcourse that is not always true but itrsquos athought that recurrs to my mind nonetheless

irsquom printing out your articles and keeping them as a source (ofcourse credits if i ever usedthem will always be reserved) Thanks a lot Pascal for the priceless info because no need to tellyou (as you already know) how hard it is to find them elsewhere really appreciative

Keep it up

salamhilda

Reply5 Jo De Baerdemaeker says

July 2 2007 at 1233 pmHi Pascal

An interesting overview it is indeed You also might want to include that Linotype has had along history of typesetting Arabic since 1911 and that the Linotype equipment and theirtypefaces dominated Arabic newspaper setting for decadeslsquoYakoutrsquo was one of the earliest simplified typefaces developed in the 1950s and is still used innewspapers today It was also one of the first digital Arabic fonts In book productionLinotypersquos lsquoLotusrsquo was one of the most popular faces along with lsquoNazaninrsquo for Farsi

The provenance can be seen from an interesting on-line article (and other publications) by



Fiona Ross Herersquos the link

httpstbrideorgfriendsconferencetwentiethcenturygraphiccommunicationNonLatinhtml

The text is a paper on lsquonon-Latin typeface design at Linotypersquo given by Fiona Ross at St BrideLibrary (London) at St Bridersquos Conference (24ndash25092002)

Kind regardsJo


July 5 2007 at 822 amHello Jo

Thank you for the informative comment about Lintype and Yakout type Well Yakout isknown as the first Modern (Mastari) Naskh with a strong straight baseline suitable fornewspaper Yakout was simplified but did not have any revolutionary ideas as in ASV-CODAR for Lakhdar Ghazal for example As mentioned in the article of Fiona Ross the initialand medial glyphs of each letter were replaced with one glyph and the final and isolatedglyphs of each letter were replaced or merged into one glyph So this enabled the character setto be reduced and made it more compatible with the Arabic type setting machines back then

Kind Regardspascal

Reply7 wajid Ali says

September 10 2007 at 430 amits great experience to have site of it its best fo having awarness of arab era so iam totallyimpressed


September 10 2007 at 432 amiam totally impressed from u all its great which u have done so thanks for having awarenessof arab era

Reply9 Ismail Hummos says

September 17 2007 at 1240 pmwonderful effort to share the beauty and joy of calligraphy May God bless your hands andhearts

Ismail

Reply10 benfredj says

October 25 2007 at 544 pmsalamcrsquoest un effort quelque soit le manque mais generalemnt merite la reconnaissance



Reply11 Online Flower Guide says

October 30 2007 at 713 amOnline Flower Guide

I couldnrsquot understand some parts of this article but it sounds interesting

Reply12 Moey says

November 9 2007 at 431 amvery interesting

Reply13 alexis barrett says

November 9 2007 at 506 ami want to know how to write ldquothe drive and determination toward the fearless pursuit of yourdreamsrdquo in arabic text could you please help me

Reply14 abbas says

February 24 2008 at 929 amhello

Reply15 Salim George Khalaf says

March 19 2008 at 910 pmVery interesting material

I would have l liked to see a mention of Melkite Deacon Abdallah Zakher who had crafted thefirst Arabic press with movable type His full history is published herehttpphoeniciaorgzakhirhtml

Thank youSalim

Reply16 joe brown says

March 24 2008 at 709 pmi would like to know if you guys can translate this for me hellip

vita melina juliette gomez temple hellip

thats my daughters name

tank you guys

Reply17 Nadine Chahine says

April 5 2008 at 634 pmHi PascalInteresting article )



I agree with Jo regarding the Linotype part The typefaces though not a revolution definedthe typographic landscape of today Also just for fun you might want to compare AXtGihaneand Yakout

I would also make a distinction between simplification (on a typographic level) and scriptreform which would redefine essential aspects of the script For example Nasri Khattar is inthe first group while Said Akl is in the second

I also think that there are 3 things that need adding1 The introduction of Arabic Typography class at the American University of Beirut by SamirSayegh in 1992 This was the first instance of a formal teaching of Arabic typography and ifyou look into it yoursquoll find that his name is linked with many of todayrsquos designers (myselfHuda Abi Fares Lara Assouad and Tarek Atrissi) The large wave of the increased interest inArabic typography is partly a result of the teachings of this program The alumni are inleading positions in many countries

2 Linotypersquos first Arabic Type Competition This was the first of its scope and the submissionsreally show the trends in contemporary design (I will write about the entries and their styles atsome point in the future)

3 Very important the Kitabat conference This was a phenomenal step in getting thecalligraphers designers and technology experts under one roof It signals the increasedinterest in Arabic Another signal of that is the whole afternoon dedicated to Arabic in theATypI Vancouver in 2003

I think these 3 points serve as a backdrop to the increased hype around Arabic As I awayssay itrsquos a very interesting time for us to live in )

Reply18 Pascal Zoghbi says

April 6 2008 at 459 pmi will add the required infothanks

Reply19 mamoun ahmed says

September 19 2008 at 156 amvery interestingi agree with your classification of the rdquo three main directions in the Arabic typedesignnowadaysrdquo

thanks

Mamoun Ahmed

Reply20 AHMED says

October 4 2008 at 540 amTANK YOU I LIKE THIS LEATREIS

Reply



21 Claudio Piccinini saysNovember 11 2008 at 1103 pmHello many thanks for this fantastic article (I have to read it in full)To the foreign designers which did an Arabic typeface therersquos the recent addition of EmanuelaConidi which designed a face called Nabil as a completion of her studies at ReadingHerersquos a spread from the recent book ldquoItalic 20Prime showcasing the work of contemporaryItalian type designershttpwwwflickrcomphotosmartab2991105411inset-72157608562721271I have not the book yet but you could see it in the photohellipClaudio

Replysays راسخ كشمیري 22

December 6 2008 at 150 pmthank you for informative material

Reply23 Sara says

January 14 2009 at 255 pmVery interesting and helpful Thank you a lot

I would like to add the Ahmed Zaki Pasha worked on decreasing the Arabic glyphs from 905to 132 ( irsquom sure it varied later ) in the first rdquo modern printing house called the Boullaqprinting house in early 1900primes

As well he introduced the punctuation to the arabic text ( Al tarqim) in 1912 where it later onmade as an addendum


January 15 2009 at 212 pmhello Sara

thanks for the info

i will look into this

can you send me some articles about this topic

Reply25 Nabeela Sajjad says

January 18 2009 at 519 amHi Pascal

It is an amazing article Full of information I read some parts of it Do you know if someresearch work has been done regarding Square Kufi

Thank you

Reply26 Temiztuumlrk says



January 22 2009 at 1119 pmSelam Pascalits great rich and very informative siteMy best wishes and success for youHasan Temiztuumlrk

Reply27 omoy says

January 25 2009 at 221 pmi hate arabic

Reply28 Samer Batter says

January 28 2009 at 121 pmGreat effort to provide the full picture many thanks for that One main point is missing here Igot an answer from Mourad Boutros upon asking him on the innovation in Arabic type hesaid big IT companies such as Microsoft and Adobe play the major role in the success andfailure to any new innovation in Arabic type If they do not ratify and make standard of a newArabic type and get it into thier products (online tools and the OS) it will not happenMeanwhile we have to settle for one font in all Arabic websites be it formal corporate tyoe ora blog We need people to rock the boat

Reply29 Hakeem Gadi says

February 8 2009 at 603 pmHi Pascal I am a fan of your site I am the one who asked for permission to use the Kufi Crossimage on wikipedia if you remeberAnyway I wanted to ask if you are aware of any attempt to extend the vowel marks (حركات) inArabic to cover e and o The only vowel extention I know of is used in the Qurrsquoan to renderimala (إمالة) which is close to e in sound Depending on the Rasm (رسم) tradition one is usingthis system writes a lozenge or a solid circle under the letter where imala occurs (I think thereare other ways to render it not sure) The problem with these is that they look very ugly anddo not harmoize with the script around them

I am posting you because the current trivocalic system aui is too awkward when it comes totrasliterating foreign words into Arabic (How do you pronounce كنك) I am wrtining Arabicsupport package for Latex (TeX) and I was thinking of throwing in a few more lsquousefulrsquo vowelmarks

Reply30 incogenator says

February 13 2009 at 207 amin response to the comment about adoption by the major IT vendors i think that there is agood point there but it also brings to mind the growing market share of emerging players likeApple Apple is a special case in that they have very good type support for latin characters andfont rendering is impeccable especially when compared to Microsoft and other incumbents inthe field but they have very weak support for Arabic type rendering if any surprisinglythough they do have an Arabic keyboard mapping called lsquoArabic QWERTYrsquo that is nothingshort of remarkable allowing one to type in ھكذاІعربي without knowing the common Arabickeymap but then they go and release the iphone without support for Arabic ligatures go



figure

Reply31 Arabic 37 raquo مع السالمة Languages says

March 11 2009 at 603 am[] back 1000 ears ago to Phonecian type The history of Arabic script is really interesting as29 Letters a blog covering the Arabic alphabet []

Reply32 Samantha says

March 28 2009 at 622 amHihttpwwwsakkalcomGraphicsCalligraphycommissionsinshaallahhtmlCan you please tell me whether or not the second phrase from the top says inshallah ormashallah I am doing a paper on arabic calligraphy and would appreciate any help youcould provide Also if you know what type of Diwani style this is could you let me knowthanks


March 28 2009 at 629 amsamantha ndash it says lsquoinsharsquoa allahrsquo in all four samples on that page including the one yoursquoreasking about

Reply34 Tariq says

June 4 2009 at 121 pmRealy the arical was ver nice but I want to ask

How we can clssified the art of arabic calligaphy

can we said as1-classical and oldLike naskh kific riqrsquoq thuluth farsiand deewani

2-Modern styleyquot andlusi DiscreteAseManzomah an tc

3 comlexe or complicted like that used in the avd and other

if any one can answer to me please fast I neet that

Reply35 Zayd says

June 5 2009 at 1049 pmHello

In fact your research is really interesting sometimes we need image of any old Arabic scriptsif you have anything about Nabatian ot oldest Arabic writing

I would be very grateful



Reagrds

Reply36 Umm_Omar says

June 22 2009 at 705 pmAs Salamu alaykum wa rahmathullah

Firstly I ask forgiveness if this postcomment offends youconcept of ur website I am amuslimah who has been

accepted to IlmSummit 2009 and in desperate need of financial aid Pl help me either bysupporting financially

spreading the word insha Allah Pls visitndash httphelp2ilmsummitwordpresscom for sadaqa -e jariya insha ALlah I

pray that Allah make it easy and beneficial for all the Ummah birsquoidhnillah JazakumullahKhayr

wa SalamSister in Islam

Reply37 md waseemuddin says

July 6 2009 at 256 pmwaseem

Reply38 Phil says

September 15 2009 at 405 amhi does anyone know what kind of writing this might be

httpi754photobucketcomalbumsxx187martial323foreignwriting9-14-2009jpgt=1252980192

thanks

Replymounir saysDecember 21 2011 at 1213 amthis is arabic its prayer called DOAAE ANNAML

Reply39 pezhman says

September 25 2009 at 1152 amgreetings

im looking for the total alphabets in ORNAMENTED KUFIAnd im wondering if someone could help with that how can i find them from somewhereheres my email adress pezhman2hotmailcom



thank you

Reply40 hamed sinno says

September 26 2009 at 1230 pmhey pascal

im currently working on the album art for mashrou3 leila and i was wondering if you knew ifit was still possible to buy the Nasri Khattar type face anywhere also the 93 boutros

thanks alotsalamat

Reply41 pascal zoghbi says

September 26 2009 at 314 pmhey Hamed

all the best for the album designi am looking forward to have your music in my library and listening to it lovely lebanesesongs and music

for the Unified Type of Nasri Khattar you should contact his daughter Camille atcamilleunifiedarabicalphabetcom

or visit the websitehttpwwwunifiedarabicalphabetcom

i believe the fonts are averrable but not sure if they are for sale

Reply42 luman says

October 7 2009 at 1224 pmtranslate word palestine into arabic

Reply43 Phil says

October 7 2009 at 303 pmhi could anyone translate this for me


thanks

ReplyGarawi saysMarch 10 2012 at 159 amDid you ever get a translation for this article

Reply



44 vvin saysOctober 18 2009 at 639 pmwell done

Reply45 Aladdin Bilal says

November 26 2009 at 357 pmWhat is the 19 basic shapes of the alphabet structure

Reply46 salahshraydeh says

December 23 2009 at 112 amWhat do the arabic pres


December 23 2009 at 113 amwen hudo yejy fil 1930


December 23 2009 at 118 amIs this great

Reply49 mohd mustapha says

January 31 2010 at 350 pmi like dis qurrsquoan im bilive in qurrsquoan

Reply50 Lana says

February 8 2010 at 412 pmHere in lebanon as low as but sorry for say i canrsquot believed hellip

Reply51 Katelynne ( says

April 13 2010 at 1032 pmI think this site really helped me I have a project due and this is the stuff that I was reallylooking for )

Reply52 Dremel says

April 27 2010 at 648 amArabic characters are stunning Good job on your work here

Reply53 Benjamin Geer says

May 3 2010 at 1048 amThanks for this fascinating article Are there any typographers working on making betterArabic fonts for reading ordinary text (ie not headlines) on the Internet The commonly used



fonts arenrsquot readable at smaller sizes and are usually too small to begin with There is a groupof programmers trying to figure out how to solve this problem maybe they could use somehelp

httparabtechiesnetnode85

Replysays رسالة ماجستیر تايتس نیمیث laquo التصمیم الطباعي العربي 54

July 6 2010 at 911 amفيІالعالمІالعربيІإالІبسببІصعوبةІاللغةІالعربیةІنفسھا وأخوناІالمصممІالطباعيІھناІیرىІأنІالعربیةІمعقدةІومنІاألجدى [][] تبسیطھاІبحروفІمقعطعة

Reply55 imad says

July 10 2010 at 818 pmلاІأرىІأنІسعیدІعقلІكانІذكيІفيІإختیارهІللحرفІالالتینيІوإعتمادهІفيІاللغةІاللبنانیةІالتيІأعتبرھاІفيІدوريІلغةІخلیطІبینالسریانیةІوІالعربیةІإذІأنІالحرفІاالتینيІیبدوІغریبІعلیھاІ كانІبإستطاعةІالمفكرІسعیدІعقلІأنІیعودІإلىІالحرفІالفینیقيІوІیعملعلیھІألنІلھذاІالحرفІعالقةІكبرى معІأنھІقدІیجدІصعوبةІفيІجعلІالناسІیعتمدزنھІإالІأننيІأرىІأنІلھذاІالحرفІعالقةІأكبرІبلغتنامنІالحرفІاالتینيІالذيІقدІیكونІبدورهІمشتقІمنІالحرفІالفنیقيІوІالحرفІالفنیقيІلھІحنینІأكبرІفيІقلوبІاللنانیینІعكسІالحرفالالتینيІالذيІنجدІمنІالІیرغبІفيІإقتباسھІمنІالبنانیینІ وІشكراІ ھذاІرأیيІالІأكثرІوІأرىІنفسيІمتطفالІإنІوجھتІمالحظات لكبیرناІسعیدІعقل


July 11 2010 at 922 pmفيІالعالمІالعربيІإالІبسببІصعوبةІاللغةІالعربیةІنفسھا وأخوناІالمصممІالطباعيІھناІیرىІأنІالعربیةІمعقدةІومنІاألجدى [][] تبسیطھاІبحروفІمقطعة

Reply57 History of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930primes till present Arabic Type Pascal Zoghbi -

Geeee Lounge saysSeptember 22 2010 at 1113 pm[] History of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930primes till present laquo Arabic Type Designer amphellip []

Reply58 Web Typography 100 Educational Resources Tools and Techniques - Smashing Magazine says

November 16 2010 at 452 pm[] []

Reply59 Web Typography Educational Resources Tools and Techniques | Wallace Goh Blogs says

November 17 2010 at 428 am[] History of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930primes till present The origin of the Arabicscript goes back to the first alphabets which were created by the Phoenicians The Phoenicianswere living on the costal area of Lebanon Palestine and Syria Since the Phoenicians werebusiness traders sailing the Mediterranean the alphabet influenced all the Mediterraneannations []

Reply



60 Web Typography Educational Resources Tools and Techniques saysNovember 17 2010 at 209 pm[] History of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930primes till present The origin of the Arabicscript goes back to the first alphabets which were created by the Phoenicians The Phoenicianswere living on the costal area of Lebanon Palestine and Syria Since the Phoenicians werebusiness traders sailing the Mediterranean the alphabet influenced all the Mediterraneannations []

Reply61 Chris Graham ndash Web Typography Educational Resources Tools and Techniques says


Reply62 Little Web Geek | Web Typography Educational Resources Tools and Techniques says


Reply63 Web Typography Resources Tools amp Techniques laquo The Creative Portfolio of Mark-Anthony says

November 27 2010 at 313 am[] History of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930primes till present67 The origin of the Arabicscript goes back to the first alphabets which were created by the Phoenicians The Phoenicianswere living on the costal area of Lebanon Palestine and Syria Since the Phoenicians werebusiness traders sailing the Mediterranean the alphabet influenced all the Mediterraneannations []

Reply64 Esra Arabic Helvetica laquo Behnaz Babazadeh says

December 12 2010 at 533 am[] Arabic (In depth look into the Arabic Alphabet 29 Letters) []

Reply65 Bukmacherzy promocje says

January 14 2011 at 117 amInteresting informations I must tell about it my uncle as he is interested in it Best RegardsBukmacherzy Promocje

Reply66 History of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930primes till present | Ikono Blog says

January 24 2011 at 554 pm[] the whole story on our favourite new blog 29 Letters where you will find all kinds of cool



design-related things ldquoThe origin of the Arabic script []

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Reply70 Page Magazine Interview laquo Arabic Type Designer amp Typographer Arabic Type Pascal

Zoghbi saysJune 1 2011 at 1219 am[] Posts History of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930s till presentArabic calligraphyWritten by hand or type set on the computerFniqiya TypeArabic Custom []

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Reply75 android apps says

August 1 2011 at 831 amHistory of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930primes till present Arabic Type Designer ampTypographer Arabic Type Pascal Zoghbi Excellent goods from you man I haveunderstand your stuff previous to and yoursquore just too wonderful I actually like what you haveacquired here really like what you are stating and the way in which you say it You make itenjoyable and you still care for to keep it smart I canrsquot wait to read far more History of ArabicType Evolution from the 1930primes till present Arabic Type Designer amp Typographer ArabicType Pascal Zoghbi again from you Thanks For Share

Reply76 Keitha Laird says

September 12 2011 at 649 pmThis reminded me of an old chinese proverb However canrsquot recollect the actual way it went

Reply77 Ala Al Naif says

September 14 2011 at 636 amI am an Arab I want to learn to write the different arabic caligraphy like Khat Al Thuluth orthe KufiCan you find me a free website that can teach meThank you

ReplySamer Batter saysOctober 27 2011 at 640 pmThere is a cheap workbook for that not sure if you could buy it online but many wereusing it to learn Thuluth and the Kufi it is really easy to follow will check it out for you asit was bought from Damascus

Reply78 Esra Arabic Helvetica | Blog says

October 26 2011 at 1212 am[] Arabic (In depth look into the Arabic Alphabet 29 Letters) []

Reply79 Russian Revolution - Революция в России says

November 12 2011 at 355 pmRussian Revolution ndash Революция в Россииhellip

[]History of Arabic Type Evolution from the 1930primes till present laquo Arabic Type Designer ampTypographer Arabic Type Pascal Zoghbi []hellip

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102 Ruqaya saysApril 23 2012 at 1210 pmPascal ZoghbiThank you for this benefit article I was looking for something written in English and coveringthe history of Arabic typography and almost find the most resources on herI will use this information to my student in design course and of course I will reference you

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Blog at WordPresscom | Theme Wu Wei by Jeff NganBack to the top



written with the Quranic Kufi script and later it with the Quranic Naskh style From its creationin the Arabian Peninsula the Arabic alphabet spread to all of the Middle East North Africa andeven as far as Spain due to Islamic conquests Since Arabic was the language of the Qurrsquoan hencethe language of God all the occupied nations were forced to use the Arabic language

12 Several Arabic calligraphic styles developed in various Arabian cities with different writingtechniques and writing tools The most known Arabic calligraphic styles are


























































































































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15 httpwwwwinsofteu










Saad Abulhab







Best regards

Pascal






Keep it up

salamhilda










Kind regardsJo




Kind Regardspascal







Ismail








Reply12 Moey says




Reply14 abbas says





Thank youSalim





tank you guys















thanks

Mamoun Ahmed

Reply20 AHMED says


Reply






Reply23 Sara says






thanks for the info






Thank you





Reply27 omoy says











figure







Reply34 Tariq says







Reply35 Zayd says






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November 16 2010 at 452 pm[] []



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Pascal






Keep it up

salamhilda










Kind regardsJo




Kind Regardspascal







Ismail








Reply12 Moey says




Reply14 abbas says





Thank youSalim





tank you guys















thanks

Mamoun Ahmed

Reply20 AHMED says


Reply






Reply23 Sara says






thanks for the info






Thank you





Reply27 omoy says











figure







Reply34 Tariq says







Reply35 Zayd says






Reagrds










Reply38 Phil says



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thanks alotsalamat







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November 16 2010 at 452 pm[] []



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Kind Regardspascal







Ismail








Reply12 Moey says




Reply14 abbas says





Thank youSalim





tank you guys















thanks

Mamoun Ahmed

Reply20 AHMED says


Reply






Reply23 Sara says






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Thank you





Reply27 omoy says











figure







Reply34 Tariq says







Reply35 Zayd says






Reagrds










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