Arabic typography is the typography of letters, graphemes, characters or text in Arabic script, for example for writing Arabic, Persian, Shahmukhi 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
[edit]Some characteristics used in Latin scripts, like bold, letter spacing[dubious – discuss] or italic, are not usually used in Arabic typography.
Calligraphic style
[edit]Some Arabic computer 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, akin to how serifs originated in stone inscriptionals. Other fonts, like Tahoma and Noto Sans Arabic, 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 (ابجد هوز ), an Arabic alphabet song | ابجد هوز حطي كلمن
شكل الاستاذ بقى منسجمن استاذ حمام .. نحن الزغاليل |
ابجد هوز حطي كلمن
شكل الاستاذ بقى منسجمن استاذ حمام .. نحن الزغاليل |
Overlines
[edit]![Overlines used in a version of the Bible in Persian (1920)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Persian_Bible_overline.png/300px-Persian_Bible_overline.png)
Historically, Arabic text used overlines to indicate emphasis.[2]
Slant (italic)
[edit]Some Arabic styles such as Diwani use a right-to-left downward-sloping slant.[3]
Use of right angles
[edit]Some typefaces 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
[edit]- Arabic calligraphy
- Naskh (script)
- Typeface anatomy
- Digital Arabic typography (on ar.wikipedia)
References
[edit]- ^ Thomas Milo, Arabic Typography, Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Brill Publishers, 2013
- ^ Charette, François (2010). "ArabXeTeX: an ArabTeX-like interface for typesetting languages in Arabic script with XeLaTeX" (PDF). p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2011-10-10.
- ^ "TPTQ Arabic: Arabic Calligraphy and Type Design by Kristyan Sarkis". tptq-arabic.com. Archived from the original on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
- ^ Zoghbi, Pascal (2019-03-14). "29LT Zarid Slab : A Firm & Agile Typeface". 29LT BLOG. Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
- ^ Zoghbi, Pascal (2019-03-14). "29LT Zarid Slab : A Firm & Agile Typeface". 29LT BLOG. Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
Further reading
[edit]- "Text Layout Requirements for the Arabic Script". w3c.github.io.