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9b4d2969814b2b9b9fed585a9bb08d83a9caaea1

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4adbeddbfb582a335a5943e2cbc181ed460e71ea

Author

Tobias Bengfort <tobias.bengfort@posteo.de>

Date

2023-08-07 21:27

post: arabic typgraphy

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diff --git a/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/index.md b/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/index.md

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   -1     1 I recently had to read up on Arabic typography for a project. This knowledge
   -1     2 may come in handy again, so I am writing this note for future me.
   -1     3 
   -1     4 Please note that I am not able to actually read any Arabic, so all this is
   -1     5 hearsay. If I contradict something other people say, I am probably wrong.
   -1     6 
   -1     7 I mostly looked into Noto because that was what I had at hand and also I assume
   -1     8 that it has decent quality. It was developed by Google, so it is available on
   -1     9 most Android phones and on Google Fonts.
   -1    10 
   -1    11 Noto coveres many different scripts. For Arabic, it offers 4 different variants:
   -1    12 
   -1    13 ## Kufic
   -1    14 
   -1    15 Example: [Noto Kufi Arabic](https://notofonts.github.io/noto-docs/specimen/NotoKufiArabic/)
   -1    16 
   -1    17 ![preview of Noto Kufi Arabic](noto-kufi-arabic.png)
   -1    18 
   -1    19 Kufic is very geometric, with straight lines and right angles. This can look
   -1    20 super stylish (wikipedia has some [great
   -1    21 examples](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kufic#Square_Kufic)), but is
   -1    22 not the best for body text.
   -1    23 
   -1    24 From my Latin perspective this feels similar to geometric display fonts or
   -1    25 maybe even monospace.
   -1    26 
   -1    27 ## Naskh
   -1    28 
   -1    29 Example: [Noto Naskh Arabic](https://notofonts.github.io/noto-docs/specimen/NotoNaskhArabic/)
   -1    30 
   -1    31 ![preview of Noto Naskh Arabic](noto-naskh-arabic.png)
   -1    32 
   -1    33 This seems to be the most common variant. Like all Arabic scripts it makes
   -1    34 heavy use of ligatures. But other than that, it feels not very different from
   -1    35 most body fonts I am familiar with.
   -1    36 
   -1    37 ## Sans
   -1    38 
   -1    39 Example: [Noto Sans Arabic](https://notofonts.github.io/noto-docs/specimen/NotoSansArabic/)
   -1    40 
   -1    41 ![preview of Noto Sans Arabic](noto-sans-arabic.png)
   -1    42 
   -1    43 Noto also contains a "sans" variant. This is a bit weird because it is the only variant that uses a term from Latin typography.
   -1    44 This one looks very similar to Naskh. The main difference is the constant line
   -1    45 width. I guess the designers wanted to provide two variants for Naskh that work
   -1    46 well in combination with serif/sans Latin scripts respectively.
   -1    47 
   -1    48 ## Nasta'liq
   -1    49 
   -1    50 Example: [Noto Nastaliq Urdu](https://notofonts.github.io/noto-docs/specimen/NotoNastaliqUrdu/)
   -1    51 
   -1    52 ![preview of Noto Nastaliq Urdu](noto-nastaliq-urdu.png)
   -1    53 
   -1    54 This one is mostly used for languages other than Arabic, e.g. Persian or Urdu.
   -1    55 It is a cursive font with a "hanging" shape where the words slant downwards.
   -1    56 This has the interesting effect that words need more vertical space as they get
   -1    57 longer. I do not know of any layouting systems that can handle this well.

diff --git a/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/index.yml b/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/index.yml

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   -1     1 title: Arabic Typography
   -1     2 date: 2023-08-07
   -1     3 tags: [design]

diff --git a/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/noto-kufi-arabic.png b/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/noto-kufi-arabic.png

diff --git a/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/noto-naskh-arabic.png b/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/noto-naskh-arabic.png

diff --git a/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/noto-nastaliq-urdu.png b/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/noto-nastaliq-urdu.png

diff --git a/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/noto-sans-arabic.png b/_content/posts/2023-08-07-arabic-typography/noto-sans-arabic.png