ASV Codar
{{Short description|Arabic typeface}}
ASV Codar (from {{Lang|fr|Arabe Standard Voyellé - Codage Arabe}}) is an Arabic typeface developed by {{Interlanguage link|Ahmed Lakhdar Ghazal|ar|أحمد الأخضر غزال}}.{{Cite web |title=ASV Codar® font family {{!}} Linotype.com |url=https://www.linotype.com/111037/asv-codar-family.html |access-date=2022-05-06 |website=www.linotype.com}}{{Cite book |last=Institut d'études et de recherches pour l'arabisation |url=https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb34787766b |title=ASV-CODAR : [Arabe standard voyellé-codage arabe] |date=1981 |publisher=Institut d'études et de recherches pour l'arabisation |location=Rabat}} It was designed as a simplified typeface, with one vowels as their own characters. ASV Codar was first released in two versions: a "pure" version with only 84 characters, and a "total" version with 23 additional characters.{{Cite book |last=Nemeth |first=Titus |title=Arabic type-making in the machine age: the influence of technology on the form of Arabic type, 1908–1993 |publisher=Brill |year=2017 |isbn=9789004349308 |location=Leiden; Boston |pages=109–129 |oclc=993752295}} The typeface is used for road signs in Morocco.{{cite web |title=Instruction générale sur la signalisation routière - Partie 1 : Généralités |url=http://www.equipement.gov.ma/Infrastructures-Routieres/Exploitation/Pages/Formulaires-et-procedures.aspx |website=Ministère de l'équipement et de l'eau |publisher=Royaume du Maroc|access-date=10 July 2023}}
History
Ahmed Lakhdar Ghazal first filed for a patent for his project in France in 1954. He submitted his idea to the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo in 1958, but it was rejected. ASV Codar was first released in two versions: a "pure" version with only 84 characters, and a "total" version with 23 additional characters.
In 1958, when Lakhdar Ghazal's was serving as both general secretary of Morocco's National Commission for UNESCO and head of the Fundamental Education section of the Moroccan {{Interlanguage link|National Ministry of Education, Preschool, and Sports|lt=Ministry of Education|ar|وزارة التربية الوطنية والتعليم الأولي والرياضة (المغرب)|fr|Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, du Préscolaire et des Sports (Maroc)}}, ASV Codar gained the support of the Moroccan government, which employed it in its first national campaign against illiteracy.
In 1960, the Moroccan government created the Institute for Studies and Research on Arabization at Mohammed V University for the development and modernization of Arabic, with Lakhdar Ghazal as its director. In 1975, an agreement with Morocco's Ministry of Education and UNESCO provided funding for Lakhdar Ghazal's project.