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Arabic Type Anatomy & Typographic Terms

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Eye Magazine Issue #90
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BEYOND LATIN type design panel in Eye Magazine #90
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“Arabic Type Anatomy: from earth to sky” by Pascal Zoghbi for Eye Magazine #90
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“Arabic Type Anatomy: from earth to sky” by Pascal Zoghbi for Eye Magazine #90


29Letters Upgraded Site

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The award-winning design studio, 29Letters (29LT), is pleased to announce that we have completely redesigned our website to give font lovers a vastly improved user experience.

B-29LT-Mochup-ResponsiveOur 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.

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From the Fonts Catalogue, we invite you to “type your text” so that you can match and compare several fonts of a specific typeface within its respective page.

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Once you are in a specific typeface page, you can preview and try all weights present in the type family; read about the font specs and features; know more about the type designers behind the fonts; and finally view the fonts is use by our esteemed clients.

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The simple Cart takes you through the selection and purchase process of the fonts in a seamless manner. 29Letters offers its clients a multi-purpose font license in all formats (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT) covering various usages and applications such as Print, Web, App, Publishing, Broadcast and any other media.

ONE-TIME CHARGE

NO MONTHLY FEES

LIFELONG LICENSE

NO BANDWIDTH RESTRICTIONS

NO LIMIT ON WEBSITE VISITORS

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In the Custom Fonts section, you can read about our type design services and browse through our showcased bespoke typeface and fonts done previously by 29LT team.

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You can also access and fill out the 29LT Custom Typeface Order Form and we will get back to you with our quotation and design services options within 24 hours.

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In the Design Projects section, you can browse though the graphic design and typography projects we have undertaken in the past years. You can also contact us through the 29LT Design Project Order Form if you need to hire us for a design project.

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Finally, registering on the site will give you access to our trial fonts, which are the basic set at Regular weight.

Download and Discover 29LT Fonts.

 


29LT Zarid : A Bold & Thoughtful Typeface

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Name Meaning معنى الإسم

Strong, robust, bold قويّ، وصلب، وجريء 

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Category الفئة

Text and display type خطّ عرض ومحتوى 

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Arabic Style الطّراز العربيّ

Alnasikh Massari نسخ مسطري 

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Latin Style الطّراز اللّاتينيّ

Sans Serif خطّ سان سريف 

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Weights لأوزان

Thin, Ultra Light, Light, Regular, Medium, Semi Bold, Bold and Black

رفيع، وخفيف جدًا، وخفيف، وعاديّ، ومتوسّط، وشبه داكن، وداكن، وأسود

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Scripts/Languages الخطوط/اللّغات

Arabic and Latin scripts covering the Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Western European languages

خطوط عربيّة ولاتينيّة تناسب اللّغات العربيّة، والفارسيّة، والأردية والأوروبيّة الغربيّة 

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Features المواصفات

Arabic Ligatures and a stylistic set for elongated elegant letters endings

حروف عربيّة مدمجة ومجموعة أسلوبيّة لنهايات حروف ممدودة راقية 

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Number of Glyphs عدد الرموز

1200+

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مصمّمو الحروف Type Designers

Pascal Zoghbi and Khajag Apelian باسكال زغبي وخاجاك أبيليان 

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The Story of 29LT Zarid

The story of 29LT Zarid starts back in 2007 when the daily Dubai newspaper “Emirates Today” approached 29Letters to create and develop a new Arabic typeface for headlining and titling for their updated tabloid. The newspaper requested a modern and crisp font that would appeal to their newly targeted younger readers as well as to be agreeable to their existing readers who were used to Naskh Mastari traditional fonts. A black display font was created covering the Arabic language for the newspaper. The font created back then, named “Imarat Headlines,” was an Arabic display font exclusively used by the newspaper from 2007 to 2014 when it was replaced by another typeface. For more than seven years, “Imarat Headlines” gave a unique image to “Emirates Today” before competing newspapers started adopting the same look and feel by producing similar alternates of it.

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In 2014, 29LT started developing 29LT Zarid based on the “Imarat Headlines” font. The Arabic black letters got a contemporary design uplift by Pascal Zoghbi who also handled the development of the extended character set covering Farsi and Urdu languages. Additionally, a broad set of ligatures and stylistic sets were added to the font to give Zarid a strong calligraphic aspect while retaining its modern spirit.

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After the fully extended Arabic character set was completed for the black weight, in 2015 Zoghbi approached the designer and colleague, Khajag Apelian, for the creation and development of the Latin counterpart of Zarid. The Arabic got revised while the Latin was in creation and refinements were undertaken on both scripts to make them come as close together as possible. A strong wedge serif Latin echoed a sturdy Arabic character set stemming from a thoughtful and bold attitude from both designers. From just a black weight, Zarid evolved into eight (8) weights (Thin, Ultra Light, Light, Regular, Medium, Semi Bold, Bold and Black) over a work frame of one year.

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It is hard to say how much time 29LT Zarid took for the completion of its present type-family status. It has been eight (8) years since its inception as “Imarat Headlines” font in 2007; two (2) years from the revamping of the black weight in 2014 by Zoghbi; and one (1) year since the joint efforts of both designers, Apelian and Zoghbi, in 2015 for the realization of the whole type family in eight (8) weights covering all Middle Eastern, North African, Eastern European, Central European, Western European, North and South American languages.

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Description of 29LT Zarid

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29LT Zarid letterforms are drawn with extreme refinement and varying contrast between the light and heavy weights of the type-family. The letters in the light weights (Thin, Ultra Light, Light and Regular) are drawn in low contrast and smooth curves, while the letters in the heavy weights (Medium, Semi Bold, Bold and Black) are drawn in high contrast with crisp cuts and sharp pen strokes. The typeface is suitable for a vast array of literature and educational publications besides branding and design projects. 29LT Zarid is a combination of an Arabic Naskh Mastari accompanied with a unique serif Latin counterpart that makes it reliable for both content and display text.

رسم زين بقلم عالي التباين وبحرفية راقية وشديدة ما يعطيه اسلوبا خاصا ومعاصرا. إن حدود الأحرف المصقولة لهذا الخط تجعله مناسبا لإظهار الثقافة الرفيعة التي تتطلبها الماركات والمشاريع الراقية. لقد صمّم كل حرف بطريقة تضمن الحفاظ على ضربات القلم الرفيعة كما السميكة كما هي في فن الخط. هذا التناقض في سماكة الخط استخدم مع زوايا حادّة وحدود بارزة لإضفاء طابع معاصر.

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It retains a balance between calligraphic angular cuts and unadorned construction. The contrast in the letters was coupled with strong cuts and edges to give the font it vigorous attitude. The letterforms are inspired by calligraphic makeup but drawn with a modern-day feel. The Arabic ligatures and elongated stylistic sets give the typeface more calligraphic characteristics. These were meant to provide the script’s robustness, and robust is, after all, what Zarid means.

بوحي من فن المخطوطة، سكبت الأحرف الجديدة بإنسجام تامّ في أشكالها، لكنها رسمت بحرية خط اليد. الهابطات المشكّلة بضربة قلم مفتوحة في بعض الأحرف، بدل ان تعود لتنغلق على الحرف ذاته، بالاضافة الى اشكال الدوائر في أحرف اخرى، هي جميعها ابداعات جديدة الهدف منها التأكيد على الهوية الفنية المخطوطية لهذا الخط ما يزيد من أناقته، وهذا هو بالضبط ما أردنا خط زين أن يعني، أنيق.

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The design approach, with open counters, the terminals and finials, and the weight and contrast, are all elements that bring the Arabic and Latin scripts together: No surprise there as both scripts were created in synergy and were inspired from each other simultaneously.

لقد ولد النصّان العربي واللاتيني بشكل متزامن. فالعناصر التي تجمعهما معا كمقاربة التصميم بذاته، والفراغات المفتوحة في الاحرف ونِسَبها، التيجان والنهايات، والاوزان والتباين، استوحياها من بعضهما البعض.

 

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29LT Zarid Features

 

 

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Harmonious Arabic and Latin Letters الحروف العربية واللاتينية منسجمة
Extended Latin Character Set covering an array of Western languages مجموعة واسعة من الحروف اللاتينية تصلح لعدد كبير من اللغات الاوروبية
Extended Latin Character Set covering an array of Western languages
مجموعة واسعة من الحروف اللاتينية تصلح لعدد كبير من اللغات الاوروبية
Extended Arabic Character Set covering Arabic, Farsi and Urdu languages مجموعة واسعة من الحروف العربية تصلح للغات العربية والفارسية والأوردو
Extended Arabic Character Set covering Arabic, Farsi and Urdu languages
مجموعة واسعة من الحروف العربية تصلح للغات العربية والفارسية والأوردو
Arabic vocalisation mark positioning علامات تحريك عربية كاملة
Arabic vocalisation mark positioning
علامات تحريك عربية كاملة
Ligatures inspired from calligraphy  مَجاوز وحروف مدمجة مستوحاة من فن الخط
Ligatures inspired from calligraphy 
مَجاوز وحروف مدمجة مستوحاة من فن الخط
Stylistic Sets to emphasis the scripts fluidity مجموعات حروف جمالية لتعزيز إنسيابية النصوص
Stylistic Sets to emphasis the scripts fluidity
مجموعات حروف جمالية لتعزيز إنسيابية النصوص
Arabic, Indic, Farsi and Urdu Figures أرقام عربية وهندية وفارسية وأوردو
Arabic, Indic, Farsi and Urdu Figures
أرقام عربية وهندية وفارسية وأوردو
Lining, Tabular, and Old Style Figures أنماط مختلفة من الأرقام الغربية
Lining, Tabular, and Old Style Figures
أنماط مختلفة من الأرقام الغربية
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The letters in the light weights (Thin, Ultra Light, Light and Regular) are drawn in low contrast and smooth curves, while the letters in the heavy weights (Medium, Semi Bold, Bold and Black) are drawn in high contrast with crisp cuts and sharp pen strokes.

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MoreCult Summer 09 Collection. Arabic Kufi Patterns in Fashion.

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MoreCult is a new Dutch based fashion design firm working on creating cross cultural designs for casual youth clothing. Arabic Type and Calligraphy are integrated into their modern clothing designs. For the summer Collection 2009, I was asked to design for them some square Kufi patterns that will be used in the collection.

The Kufi Patterns were created from the English words “More Cult”
and the Arabic translation of it “أكثر ثقافة”.


My Mulsaq Project Entry “Ma7rousa ya 3arousa”

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Ma7rousa ya 3arousa entry in the Mulsaq Project.
Cargo trucks in Lebanon and the Middle East are usually painted with Arabic calligraphy using vernacular Arabic words. The Arabic word “mahrousa” is literarily painted on every cargo truck in Lebanon mostly on the back of the trunk or above the back wheels. Alongside this word, there is always an eye figure drawn next to it or a baby shoes hanging from beneath it. The word and figures are meant to bring good luck to the truck and prevent it from the envy and jealous eyes. The words “mahrousa ya ‘arousa” is typeset using “Alef Caps” type, which is one of my fonts originally designed for Alef Magazine, chosen for the “mcharabiya” arabesque star-shaped pixel pattern, emphasizing the Middle Eatsern flavor of the design. The baby shoe can be stuck hanging from the mirror or directly from the arabesque letters.






29LT Baseet : A Dynamic & Energetic Type System

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29LT Baseet Type System: 

29LT Baseet type system consists of 16 styles; 8 Standard styles and 8 Slanted styles. The styles are: Thin, Thin Slanted, Extra Light, Extra Light Slanted, Light, Light Slanted, Regular, Slanted, Medium, Medium Slanted, Bold, Bold Slanted, Extra Bold, Extra Bold Slanted, Black, and Black Slanted.

The standard Arabic style is inspired by the Modern Kufic and Naskh calligraphic styles; while the slanted Arabic style is instigated by the Eastern Kufic and Naskh calligraphic styles. The Latin counterpart is based on mono-spaced style.

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29LT Baseet Description:

29LT Baseet is a simplified typeface drawn with extreme care and attention incorporating a mono-linear structure that permits casualty within a relaxed atmosphere. The letter structures are a mixture of straight vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines fused in between curved smooth corners and sharp edges, together they give the typeface a dynamic characteristic and energetic feel that fits seamlessly in today’s world. Its round terminals and mono-spaced Latin letters lends the typeface a young and friendly image that makes it suitable for diverse projects ranging from fun and urban to serious and corporate.

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It is a type family with maximum legibility and ease of use. The Arabic letterforms arrangement represents modernity while retaining its calligraphic traditional. Whereas the Latin is drawn based on the mono-spaced or mono-type fonts from the early 20th century for typesetting machines and typewriters. The fonts were designed within a simplified Arabic character set and a mono-spaced Latin design to enhance the script’s simplicity, and simple is, after all, what Baseet means.

The Slanted fonts are categorized as what is known as “true Italics” in the sense that the glyphs were redrawn based on the Eastern Kufic style and not just slanted from the standard style. The traditional Eastern Kufic style is written with a left incline in the pen. Some letters change radically between the Standard and the Slanted styles, while other just acquired a slant. The name “Slanted” was adopted instead of “Italic” for the 8 inclined styles since in Arabic typography and calligraphy there is no such term as an italic style.

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Traditional Naskh Calligraphic Style
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Traditional Ornamental Kufic Calligraphic Style
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Traditional Eastern Kufic Style

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A number of elements bring both Arabic and Latin scripts together: the design approach, open counters, proportions, terminals and finials, weight and contrast. Both scripts were created in synergy and were inspired from each other simultaneously.

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29LT Baseet Story:

The story of Baseet starts in 2009. The graphic design studio EPS51 in Berlin approached 29Letters for the creation of an Arabic font as a companion to Simple Typeface from Lineto Type Foundry. The font was initially created for the ContempArabia event in the Gulf Region. The initial work done on the font was a collaboration between Pascal Zoghbi from 29LT and Ben Wittner from EPS51. Basic Arabic Regular and Bold fonts were created and used throughout the visual identity of ContempArabia.

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In 2010, 29Letters was launched as a digital type foundry and 29LT Basset was one of the first published typeface. Ben Wittner and Pascal Zoghbi embarked on the development of the Arabic character to cover Arabic, Farsi and Urdu scripts, while Swiss Typefaces took on the challenge on creating a new mono-spaced Latin companion. The type family grow from 2 to 4 weights and it covered all Middle Eastern and Central and Western European languages.

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In 2016, after 6 years since the first set of 29LT Basset was published, 29Letters took the challenge of growing the type family from 4 into 16 fonts. The change of technology and the advanced support of the Arabic script in the past 6 years required a complete transformation of the old font files into newly developed files using the latest type design software. The main character set was revised and updated to cover more languages, and a set of ligatures were added to the Standard set. After the 8 new Standard fonts were created, it came the time to think of what would be the best way to approach an Italic set for both the Arabic and the Latin. For the Latin it was straight forward since it was based on the Italic Mono-type style, but it was challenging for the Arabic since Italic doesn’t exist in the Arabic script. After research and several trials of design options, it was decided to base the Arabic Italics on the Eastern Kufic calligraphic style as explained above in this post. Hence the design of 8 Slanted styles was created making the Baseet type family complete.

From 4 to 8 to 16 over the past 6 years!

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29LT Baseet Features:

Below are the set of features present in 29LT Baseet typeface in both the Standard and the Slanted styles:

  1. Latin Character Set

Extended Latin Character Set covering an array of Western languages

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  1. Arabic Character Set

Extended Arabic Character Set covering Arabic, Farsi and Urdu languages

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  1. Vocalization

Arabic vocalization mark positioning

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  1. Ligatures

Ligatures inspired from calligraphy

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  1. Figures

Arabic, Indic, Farsi and Urdu Figures

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29LT Bukra Type Family : The Biggest Multilingual Arabic/Latin Type System

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29LT Bukra type system currently consists of 94 styles, 47 Standard styles and 47 Slanted styles ranging from Hairline to Black in Condensed, Semi Condensed, Normal, Semi Wide and Wide.

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The styles in each width category are:

[1] Hairline, [2] Hairline Slanted, [3] Thin, [4] Thin Slanted, [5] Extra Light, [6] Extra Light Slanted, [7] Light, [8] Light Slanted, [9] Regular, [10] Slanted, [11] Medium, [12] Medium Slanted, [13] Semi Bold, [14] Semi Bold Slanted, [15] Bold, [16] Bold Slanted, [17] Extra Bold, [18] Extra Bold Slanted, [19] Black, and [20] Black Slanted. (p.s. The Semi Condensed doesn’t have Black and Black Slanted, and the Condensed doesn’t have Extra Bold, Extra Bold Slanted, Black, and Black Slanted)

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All of the above styles make 29LT Bukra the biggest multilingual Arabic and Latin typeface to-date.

 


29LT Bukra Description:

Contemporary geometric letterforms drawn with extreme refinement and sleek structure that unveils the bold and clean 29LT Bukra typeface. Its modern simplistic form makes all of its typographic styles suitable for a wide range of design applications. Corporate identities benefit from the fonts’ clean and polished outlines; while strong headlines and slogans profits from the fonts’ crisp structure. In big size, it works well in display type applications, while in small size it can be applied for short content text. The light weights of the type family give the notion of elegance and refinement, while the heavy weights imply strength and seriousness. Furthermore, the condensed styles are narrow and tall while the wide styles are round and heavy. It’s a type family with endless visuals representations allowing it to be applied in an infinite number of graphical applications.

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Bukra Standard is a type family created for maximum legibility and ease of use. The Arabic letterforms were designed based on the Abbasid & Modern Kufic styles with large open proportions and short ascenders and descenders cut to a minimum length. Whereas the Latin character set was designed based on the Geometric Sans Serif structures with a large main body height and minimalistic and original design aspects that lends the typeface a unique feel and a futuristic structure. After all, Bukra means ‘Tomorrow’.

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Bukra Slanted fonts are categorized as what is known as “true Italics” in the sense that the glyphs were redrawn based on a new design approach and not just slanted from the Standard fonts. The Arabic Slanted is based on the Eastern Kufic style since the Arabic Standard is based on the Modern Kufic style. The Eastern Kufic style is written with a left incline in the pen and contains straight diagonal letterforms and cuts. Comparing the Standard and Slanted character set, most glyphs changed radically between the two sets while others just acquired a slant. The name “Slanted” was adopted instead of “Italic” for the inclined styles because in Arabic typography and calligraphy there is no such term as an italic style.

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Straight and round structures define the Standard styles while diagonal and edgy structures outline the Slanted styles. Both answer the same design approach while being strictly distinctive from each other.

Like all of 29LT fonts, many elements bring the Arabic and Latin scripts together, whether it’s the design approach, or the use of open counters, the proportions, or the terminals, finials, weight and contrast. We created both scripts in synergy and allowed them to be inspired by each other and be inspired by them ourselves, as we are sure you will be as well.

 


29LT Bukra Story:

The story of Bukra started in 2007. Pascal Zoghbi was contacted by Dr. Huda AbiFares to collaborate with her on the creation of a new Arabic font for “Ibn Battuta Mall” in Dubai, UAE. The client was asking for a strong and bold Arabic font to echo Futura Extra Bold typeface. Since Future is a geometric sans serif font, Zoghbi started looking for inspiration into Arabic calligraphic styles that are structured and geometric within the Kufic realm. Eventually a black geometric font immerged with extremely small counters and heavy geometric black pen strokes. This design aspect achieved the desired feel and look the client was asking for and granted the mall a distinctive visual identity and a sharp voice. The font was used as the main display type on huge banners informing the visitors about the latest deals and slogans of the mall. Additionally, it was used for all print applications such as ads, posters, fliers alongside online visual graphics on their website.

Bukra-Sketches

After 5 year in 2012, 29Letters was launched as an independent digital type foundry and 29LT Bukra was one of the first published typeface. Zoghbi embarked on the development of the Arabic character set to cover Arabic, Farsi and Urdu scripts; while Swiss Typefaces, 29LT design partners, took on the challenge of creating a new open feel Latin companion. During this time, the type family grew from 1 to 5 weights and it covered all Middle Eastern, North African and European languages.

29LT-Bukra-Slanted-0329LT-Bukra-Slanted-04In 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.

29LT-Bukra-Ligatures-0129LT-Bukra-Ligatures-02In 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+.

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Once the Standard 47 styles were developed, another set of design decisions was needed in order to create the slanted sets for both the Arabic and the Latin. In order to make these decisions Zoghbi conducted a research about Arabic and Latin scripts to answer the design problems they faced. After several slanted design trials were conducted for both scripts, we opted for a hybrid Geometric Gothic solution for the Latin and an edgy hybrid Eastern & Modern Kufic for the Arabic. In result the Bukra type family grew from 47 to 94 styles.

29LT-Bukra-History

1 to 5 to 47 to 94 over the past 10 years!

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29LT Bukra Features:

Below are the set of features present in 29LT Bukra typeface in the Standard styles. The Slanted styles have the same features except for the stylistic sets:

 

  1. Latin Character Set

Extended Latin Character Set covering an array of Western languages

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  1. Arabic Character Set

Extended Arabic Character Set covering Arabic, Farsi and Urdu languages

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  1. Vocalization

Arabic vocalization mark positioning

29LT-Bukra-Features-03

  1. Ligatures

Ligatures inspired from calligraphy

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  1. Stylistic Set

Stylistic Sets to emphasis the scripts fluidity

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  1. Figures

Arabic, Indic, Farsi and Urdu Figures

Lining & Tabular Figures

Fractions

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29LT-Bukra-Features-07


 

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MoreCult Summer 09 Collection. Arabic Kufi Patterns in Fashion.

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MoreCult is a new Dutch based fashion design firm working on creating cross cultural designs for casual youth clothing. Arabic Type and Calligraphy are integrated into their modern clothing designs. For the summer Collection 2009, I was asked to design for them some square Kufi patterns that will be used in the collection.

The Kufi Patterns were created from the English words “More Cult”
and the Arabic translation of it “أكثر ثقافة”.



29LT Azer : Serious & Amicable

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29LT Azer type family consist of 14 styles, 7 Standard styles and 7 Slanted styles, covering the following weights: Thin, Extra Light, Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, and Black.

The Arabic and the Latin mirror each other’s appearances much like fraternal twins with compatible attitudes. Azer Latin is earnest and sincere; Azer Arabic is direct and austere.

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29LT Azer Description:

29LT Azer is drawn with extreme refinement and low pen contrast that conveys a modern and friendly outlook. The typeface combines simple lines with careful detailing to create a serious yet approachable mood. Azer is amicable and serious without being conformist. The typeface combines charm, simplicity and consideration. The light weights of the type family are easy to read in long blocks of copy, while the heavy weights imply strength and seriousness which makes them suitable for display-text such as titles and slogans. The slanted styles give the type family an added typographic voice for highlight or emphasis.

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The standard styles retain a balance between calligraphic angular cuts and unadorned construction. The contrast in the letters was complemented with strong cuts and edges to give the font a crispy robust attitude. Letterforms were given innovative letter structures inspired the calligraphic makeup but drawn in a contemporary approach. The Arabic ligatures are intended to enhance the script’s ‘friendliness’, and friendly is after all, what Azer means in Arabic.

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The slanted styles are the casual siblings of the standard styles in the type family. The slanted letters were redrawn based on fast hand-gestures and not merely slanted from the standard letters. The stems are slanted while the counters are round and smooth. In the Arabic character set, the terminals are curvy with an open-ended bowls and the baseline links are smooth. They are a set of free-spirited styles that can accompany the standard set for change of text tone, or stand alone as a causal copy text or delightful display text. The slanted styles are a cursive set of fonts that is known as “true-italics” which are based on a stylized form of quick calligraphic handwriting. The name “slanted” was adopted instead of “italic” for the inclined styles since in Arabic typography and calligraphy there is no such term as an italic style.

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A number of elements bring the Arabic and Latin scripts together; the overall design approach, open counters, proportions, weight, contrast, terminals and finials, as well as a diamond-shaped diacritic dot. Both scripts were created in synergy and were inspired from each other simultaneously. The Naskh calligraphic style of the Arabic is complemented by a calligraphic broad nip pen technique in the Latin, creating strong pen strokes: crisp broken cuts with open and fluid letter structure. Azer Latin was drawn with conic shaped stems, inspired by the Arabic Alef glyph. The two scripts are like twins, with different attitudes.

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Where Arabic typefaces have a strong horizontal structure because of baseline letter connections, Latin typefaces have a vertical rhythm because of an upright stem structure present in most glyphs. The thirty-degree angle of the broad nib pen increases the horizontal stress of the Latin letters, which brings the overall color of the Latin text closer to the Arabic Text.

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29LT Azer Story:

In 2008, Azer was designed part of a branding project Pascal Zoghbi and Wael Morcos were collaborating on. When the Global Financial crisis took its toll on the UAE, the project was postponed indefinitely and the first outlines of the font remained unfinished.

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There remained a strong need, however, to address the shortcomings of contemporary Arabic typography, which tends to be either too classical or too resistant to the aesthetic values of Arabic Calligraphy.

The design was resumed in preparation for the launch of the 29LT type foundry in 2012. As the Arabic design was taking shape, Swiss Typefaces, 29LT design partners, designed a sans serif Latin companion inspired from the Arabic letters structures.

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The design progressed over a two-year period during which the three of them collaborated to bring the fonts to completion. Azer was one of the typefaces published as part of the official launch of the 29LT type foundry in August 2012. Back then it only existed in 5 standard styles; Thin, Light, Regular, Bold and Black.

In 2017, 5 years after the first release of 29LT Azer typeface, 29LT took on the challenge of growing the type family from 5 to 7 weights and to expand it into two design categories, standard and slanted, extending the family from 5 to 14 fonts. 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 original set.

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After the creation of the 7 new weights, the time came to think about what would be the best way to approach the “italic” version of the typeface. New design decisions were needed and a calligraphic and typographic research was undertaken. Type designer Jan Fromm from Berlin was approached to create the italic version of the Latin, while Pascal Zoghbi tackled the solution for the Arabic counterpart.

29LT-Azer-Image-08In 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.

 

29LT Azer Features:

Below are the set of features present in 29LT Azer typeface in the Standard styles. The Slanted styles have the same features except for the stylistic sets:

 

  1. Latin Character Set


Extended Latin Character Set covering an array of Western languages

29LT-Azer-Image-14

  1. Arabic Character Set


Extended Arabic Character Set covering Arabic, Farsi and Urdu languages

29LT-Azer-Image-15

  1. Vocalization


Arabic vocalization mark positioning

29LT-Azer-Image-16

  1. Ligatures


Ligatures inspired from calligraphy

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  1. Stylistic Set 01


Stylistic Sets to emphasis the scripts fluidity

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  1. Stylistic Set 02


Stylistic Sets for Persian and Urdu text

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  1. Elongated Teeth Alternates


When a tooth-letter is proceeded and succeeded by another tooth-letter, it is raised for increased legibility.

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  1. Figures


Arabic, Indic, Farsi and Urdu Figures

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  1. Figures


Lining, Tabular, and Old Style Figures

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