Arabic typography
Arabic typography is the typography of letters, graphemes, characters or text in Arabic script, for example for writing Arabic, Persian, or Urdu. 16th century Arabic typography was a by-product of Latin typography with Syriac and Latin proportions and aesthetics. It lacked expertise in the three core aspects of Arabic writing: calligraphy, style and system. Calligraphy requires aesthetically skilled writing in a chosen canonical style such as naskh, nastaʿlīq or ruqʿah. System denotes the script grammar covering such rules as horizontality and stretching.[1]
Characteristics[]
Some characteristics used in Latin scripts, like bold, letter spacing or italic, are not usually used in Arabic typography.
Calligraphic style[]
Some Arabic fonts are calligraphic, for example Arial, Courier New, and Times New Roman. They look as if they were written with a brush or oblong pen. Other fonts use a mono-linear style more akin to sans-serif Latin scripts. Monolinear means that the lines have the same width throughout the letter.
Text example | Calligraphic (Arial) | Monolinear (Tahoma) |
---|---|---|
Eastern Arabic numerals | ٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩ | ٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩ |
Abjad Hawz (alphabet song | ), an Arabicابجد هوز حطي كلمن
شكل الاستاذ بقى منسجمن استاذ حمام .. نحن الزغاليل |
ابجد هوز حطي كلمن
شكل الاستاذ بقى منسجمن استاذ حمام .. نحن الزغاليل |
Overlines[]
Historically, Arabic text used overlines instead of underlines used in Latin script.[2]
Slant (italic)[]
Some Arabic styles such as Diwani use a right-to-left downward-sloping slant.[3]
Use of right angles[]
Some fonts use more right angles, for example Noto Kufi Arabic. Others, like Tahoma and Arial, have a more rounded style (see graph below). A font with tendency towards right angles is also called 'angled',[4] and rounded fonts are also called 'cursive'.[5]
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See also[]
- Cyrillic script, section "Letterforms and typography"
- Naskh (script)
- Category:Iranian typographers and type designers
- Typeface anatomy
- Category:Arabic typefaces
References[]
- ^ Thomas Milo, Arabic Typography, Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Brill Publishers, 2013
- ^ "Emphasis (typography)". Emphasis (typography). Retrieved 2020-09-02.
- ^ "TPTQ Arabic: Arabic Calligraphy and Type Design by Kristyan Sarkis". tptq-arabic.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
- ^ Zoghbi, Pascal (2019-03-14). "29LT Zarid Slab : A Firm & Agile Typeface". 29LT BLOG. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
- ^ Zoghbi, Pascal (2019-03-14). "29LT Zarid Slab : A Firm & Agile Typeface". 29LT BLOG. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
- Typography
- Arabic typefaces