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.Thomas Milo, Arabic Typography, Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Brill Publishers, 2013

Characteristics

Some characteristics used in Latin scripts, like bold, letter spacing{{dubious|reason=W3C ALREQ §4.3 mentions letter stretching for justification and emphasis|date=March 2023}} or italic, are not usually used in Arabic typography.

= Calligraphic style =

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.

{{hatnote|This design of this table assumes that the reader has the computer fonts Arial and Tahoma installed; as the latter is proprietary to Microsoft, that assumption may not be true, font substitution will occur. and the table will not be displayed as intended.}}

class="wikitable"

!Text example

!Calligraphic (Arial)

!Monolinear (Tahoma)

Eastern Arabic numerals

|٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩

Abjad Hawz ({{interlanguage link|ابجد هوز|arz}}), 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 =

File:Persian_Bible_overline.png in Persian (1920)|300x300px]]

Historically, Arabic text used overlines to indicate emphasis.{{Cite web |url=http://ctan.mackichan.com/macros/xetex/latex/arabxetex/arabxetex.pdf |title=ArabXeTeX: an ArabTeX-like interface for typesetting languages in Arabic script with XeLaTeX |year=2010 |first=François |last=Charette |page=5 |access-date=2011-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425053159/http://ctan.mackichan.com/macros/xetex/latex/arabxetex/arabxetex.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-25 |url-status=dead }}

= Slant (italic) =

Some Arabic styles such as Diwani use a right-to-left downward-sloping slant.{{Cite web|title=TPTQ Arabic: Arabic Calligraphy and Type Design by Kristyan Sarkis|url=https://tptq-arabic.com/articles/arabic_calligraphy_and_type_design|access-date=2020-09-02|website=tptq-arabic.com|archive-date=2022-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220129021029/https://tptq-arabic.com/articles/arabic_calligraphy_and_type_design|url-status=live}}

= Use of right angles =

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',{{Cite web|last=Zoghbi|first=Pascal|date=2019-03-14|title=29LT Zarid Slab : A Firm & Agile Typeface|url=https://blog.29lt.com/2019/03/14/29lt-zarid-slab/|access-date=2020-09-02|website=29LT BLOG|language=en|archive-date=2020-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922181552/https://blog.29lt.com/2019/03/14/29lt-zarid-slab/|url-status=live}} and rounded fonts are also called 'cursive'.{{Cite web|last=Zoghbi|first=Pascal|date=2019-03-14|title=29LT Zarid Slab : A Firm & Agile Typeface|url=https://blog.29lt.com/2019/03/14/29lt-zarid-slab/|access-date=2020-09-02|website=29LT BLOG|language=en|archive-date=2020-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922181552/https://blog.29lt.com/2019/03/14/29lt-zarid-slab/|url-status=live}}

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| rowspan="15" |File:Round_versus_angular_Arabic_fonts.png

References

= Further reading =

{{cite web |title=Text Layout Requirements for the Arabic Script |url=https://w3c.github.io/alreq |website=w3c.github.io}}

Category:Typography