Since most documentation and references about the Arabic script stem from the calligraphic methodology, this article will tackle the problem of allocating typographic terms to Arabic type and typography.
بينما نجد معظم الوثائق والمراجع التي تتناول جذور الخط الطباعي العربي من ناحية المنهجية الطباعية، تعالج هذه المقالة مشاكل تحديد صفات الحرف والخط الطباعي العربي.
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The following typographic demonstrations compare the anatomy of Arabic type to that of Latin type. The diagrams show a contemporary Naskh / Sans Serif typeface, called 29LT Kaff that comes in eight (8) weights designed by Pascal Zoghbi and Ian Party (SwissTypefaces) . It was published in the Spring of 2015 at which time it became part of 29Letters commercial fonts library.
الاستدلال التالي يقارن تشريح الحرف الطباعي العربي بالحرف الطباعي اللاتيني. تظهر الرسوم البيانية خط النسخ المعاصر / الخالي من التذييل (Sans Serif) المسمى «كاف» ذو الثمانية أوزان المصمَّم من قِبل باسكال الزغبي وإيان بارتي. تم نشره في ربيع ٢٠١٥ في الوقت الذي أصبح فيه جزءاً من مكتبة ٢٩حرف للخطوط التجارية.
Latin type conventionally sits on a baseline, with five main vertical levels of reference: baseline, x-height, ascender, descender, and caps-height. By contrast, Arabic type is less constrained, with more invisible typographic levels at the type designer’s disposal. A humanistic typeface inspired by the cursive Naskh scripts, such as this one, may make use of up to twelve imaginary typographic levels, whereas a typeface based on a geometric Kufic script may require only four or five levels. This means that it is essential for Arabic type designers to possess expert knowledge of Arabic calligraphic styles and systems in order to be creative and to translate the calligraphic rules into typographic guidelines for their typefaces.
يجلس الخط الطباعي اللاتيني عادة على خط ارتكاز، بخمسة مستويات عمودية مرجعية: خط الارتكاز (Baseline)، ارتفاع الحرف إكس (x-height)، الصاعد (Ascender)، النازل (Descender)، خط ارتفاع الحرف الكبير (Caps-height). بالمقابل، فإن الحرف الطباعي العربي أكثر تحرراً، مع مستويات غير مرئية أكثر في خدمة المصمم. يمكن لخط إنساني كهذا الخط مستوحى من مخطوطات بخط النسخ، أن يستخدم حوالي إثني عشر مستوىً وهمياً، في حين يستخدم خط آخر مرتكز على الخط الكوفي فقط أربعة إلى خمسة مستويات. هذا يعني أنه على المصمم أن يمتلك المعرفة المحترفة لأساليب وأنظمة التخطيط العربي ليكون مبدعاً ويترجم قواعد التخطيط لخطوات توجيهية في الخط الطباعي لاستخدامها في انشاء الخط.
For each of the cursive Arabic calligraphic styles (Naskh, Thuluth, Diwani, etc.), the proportions of the letters are governed by several systems—dot, circle and similarity—which act as guides for Arabic type designers. There is no one set of typographic levels in Arabic type anatomy as there is in Latin type anatomy. Type designers decide on the number of levels needed for the typeface they are designing, and according to the calligraphic style that the typeface is based on.
في كل أسلوب تخطيط عربي (نسخ، ثلث، ديواني، إلخ..)، تتحكم عدة أنظمة بنسب الأحرف، النقطة، الدائرة والمشابهة، والتي تمثل الدليل لمصممي الخط العربي. هناك مجموعة واحدة من مستويات التخطيط الطباعي في تشريح الحرف الطباعي العربي كما في تشريح الخط الطباعي اللاتيني. يقرر مصممو الخطوط عدد المستويات التي يحتاجونها في الحرف الذين يصممونه استناداً على أسلوب التخطيط الذي يرتكزون عليه.
Instead of one mean-line—in Latin typefaces, the x-height—there may be several: tooth-, loop-, and eye-heights. Instead of a single ascender, there may be two, called the ‘Sky’. In place of a single descender, there may be two or three, called the ‘Earth’. In between the previously mentioned guidelines, there are two further invisible lines that define the baseline’s position and thickness.
عوضاً عن مستوى وحيد – في الحرف اللاتيني هو ارتفاع-س – يمكن أن يكون هناك العديد من المستويات: ارتفاع السن (Tooth-height)، ارتفاع الدورة (Loop-height)، ارتفاع العين (Eye-height)، وعوضاً عن صاعد واحد، يمكن أن يكون هناك مستويان، يطلق عليهما اسم “السماء” (Sky). وبدل النازل الواحد، يمكن أن يكون هناك اثنان أو ثلاثة اسمهم “الأرض” (Earth). وبين المستويات المذكورة آنفاً، هناك مستويان إضافيان غير مرئيان يحددان موضع خط الارتكاز وسماكته.
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A summarised and edited version of this article was firstly published in Eye Magazine issue #90 within the “Beyond Latin: Type design panel” article published in June 2015. This brief article on Arabic type anatomy is the fruit of my experience from the past years in: 1. Designing Arabic fonts; 2. Lecturing about Arabic typography; 3. Discussing the Arabic script with calligraphers and colleagues; and 4. Reading and researching about Arabic calligraphy. Hopefully I will be able to publish a comprehensive detailed article or book on this topic and other Arabic typography topics in the near future.
هذه المقالة الموجزة عن تشريح الخط الطباعي العربي هي ثمرة خبرتي من السنوات الماضية في: ١ – تصميم الخطوط العربية؛ ٢ – المحاضرات في الخطوط الطباعية العربية؛ ٣- مناقشة الخطوط مع خطاطين وزملاء؛ ٤ – القراءة والأبحاث حول التخطيط العربي. على أمل أن استطيع نشر مقال أو كتاب مفصل وواضح حول هذا الموضوع وغيره من المواضيع التي تخص الخط الطباعي العربي في المستقبل القريب.
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Written in English by Pascal Zoghbi
Generously translated to Arabic by Zein Noureddeen
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Our new, bilingual Arabic and English responsive website showcases 29LT fonts with rich, vibrant colors and photographs. The site features an interactive type tool that lets you visualize the Arabic and Latin fonts of your choice in selected design project, side by side with its pure typographic form. As you click through the 29LT fonts, you can display each one at the size you need and in the language you prefer.
In 2017,5 years after the first release of 29LT Bukra typeface, 29LT took on the challenge of growing the type family from 5 to 10 weights and they expanded into 5 width categories, growing the type family from 5 to 47 styles. The development of technology with the additional support of the Arabic script in the past 5 years required a complete transformation of the old font files into newly developed ones using the latest type design software. The main character set was revised and updated to cover more languages, and a set of ligatures and stylistic sets were added to the Standard set. After the creation of the 10 new weights in the Normal Bukra set, the time came to think about what would be the best way to approach the Condensed and Wide versions of the type family. New design decisions were needed to guaranty a smooth transition between the 5 different width categories while keeping the same typographic characteristics across the type family. The letterforms in the condensed styles were drawn in a slim and elevated manner, as opposed to the letterforms in the wide styles which were drawn in a curved and plump manner. Eventually the type family grew from a basic standard set of weights into a unique type system covering different weights, widths and design variations granting the type family a huge array of design possibilities in graphic applications.
In addition to the expansion of the weight and width axes of the type family, the new fonts include advanced typographical support with features such as ligatures and stylistics sets inspired from calligraphy to improve the legibility of the fonts. The number of glyphs per font grew from 550+ to 1000+.
In addition to the expansion of the weights and introduction of the slanted styles to the type family, the new fonts include advanced typographical support with features such as ligatures, alternates and stylistics sets inspired from calligraphy to improve the legibility of the fonts. Consequently, the range of western languages support grew to cover all Western, Central and Eastern European languages besides all American and African languages using the Latin script. Hence, the number of glyphs per font grew from 725+ in 2012 to 1625+ in 2015.
