Thursday, February 28, 2008
Bryan: My answer to your Comment
When doing my research I came up with some facts that indicates the focus of the media in the Middle Eastern areas. And the Arabic font is the second used worldwide; so designers began to develop the font and make it as modernized to fit on TV screens as well as the web. This is how they began to develop the font. Also, I checked out the history and the reason why the type was late to develop is because of the Ottoman power (Turkey now) has widespread the middle east, so the empire tried to delete the Arab identity and shriveled calligraphy and the font. Now Turkey got rid of Arabic font totally, they use instead Latin script.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Arabic type as cultural Identity
Throughout the history of Arabic type and its relation with typography, today both issues have produced the embodiment to create a cultural identity. The media has to do with a type manipulation and it is responded as a way of various meaning of communication. The dichotomy of globalization has empowered the exchange of ideas and textual information through the world and as a form of advertising messages that let visual communication have some dialogues between the east and the west and then represents the new modern identity. Edward Said issued the dialogue of civilization and this has to do with his notion of orientalism when the eastern and western cultures interacted to share ideas, knowledge and technological inventions. But does these facts were a challenge to improve the Arabic font type or were they as a negative aspect that let Arabic type lack its aesthetic form? Political issues in the Middle East mushroomed the media, and Arabic script is the second being used on T.V. This has made contemporary designer to think about creating a font that is likely to be close to a westernized font.
The " craft par excellence" made the letterforms to be more conscious than a shape of letterform but also the social matter of a nation to be as effective as the context. Designing a font type has to have an aesthetic balance that should be applied in a way social concerns and practical constraints has to fit the conceptual context.
To quote Huda Smitshuijzen agreed to essentially design Arabic Font type that meets all the diverse aspects of the present visual communication. Typography today is the most effective representation that take a part in the socio-economical issues through the widespread of media.
The " craft par excellence" made the letterforms to be more conscious than a shape of letterform but also the social matter of a nation to be as effective as the context. Designing a font type has to have an aesthetic balance that should be applied in a way social concerns and practical constraints has to fit the conceptual context.
To quote Huda Smitshuijzen agreed to essentially design Arabic Font type that meets all the diverse aspects of the present visual communication. Typography today is the most effective representation that take a part in the socio-economical issues through the widespread of media.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Researsh " Arabic Fonts Origins".
Imane El Allame
Typography
Arabic origins:
Arabic is one of the Semitic languages including Armaic and Hebrew, and all three languages are read from right to left. Actually Arabic language consists of two general groups that are the classical Arabic and it is used on the holy Quran and the modern Arabic that is most used on the media and literary texts.
“ The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 consonantal signs (three of which are also used as long vowels). Scholars also agreed that Arabic script is traced back to Nabaetan script that dates from the third century A.D and then later produced a static, angular script known as JAZM.
At the 7th century A.D with the dawn of Islam calligraphy became important. According to scholars “ the divine revelation created the need to record every word of holy Quran in exact detail, heroic feats of memory could no longer be relied upon. The Arab fascination with the beauty of spoken word coupled with the limitations of existing Arabic scripts played a positive role in the development of Arabic calligraphy as an art form.” Because Arabs were very interested in poetry before and after Islam, they began to develop Arabic script to an aesthetic calligraphic and be as an art form.
In 651 A.D the first copies of the holy Quran were written in the scripts of Mecca and Medina local variants of Jazm. Later, Kufi style was created from Jazm script and then led to a large amount of variation about 150 types.
Big Change:
The first change that took place in the written language was the insertion of diacritic points .
Other fonts:
Naskhi: 10th century, it was used for copying the holy quran. Nashi is characterized by short horizental stems and almost equal vertical depth above and below the medial line.
Ta`liq: 15th was developed in Persia spread in Turkey, Pakistan and the Indian sub-continent. Mostly used in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Diwani: Based on Ta`liq with less dramatic hanging baselines,
Riq`a: From the 15th century but became dominant at the early 19th century. It is used in Egypt.
Thuluth: Back to the 7th century but it didn’t develop until the late 9th century. Ornamental scripts and the lines are used for calligraphic inscription, titles and headings.
Kufic: Achieved a level of perfection at the 7th century. The script is characterized by its static, rectangular lines and the short vertical stokes and extended horizontal lines.
Sources: Arabic for Designers. Author: Mourad Boutros
Typography
Arabic origins:
Arabic is one of the Semitic languages including Armaic and Hebrew, and all three languages are read from right to left. Actually Arabic language consists of two general groups that are the classical Arabic and it is used on the holy Quran and the modern Arabic that is most used on the media and literary texts.
“ The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 consonantal signs (three of which are also used as long vowels). Scholars also agreed that Arabic script is traced back to Nabaetan script that dates from the third century A.D and then later produced a static, angular script known as JAZM.
At the 7th century A.D with the dawn of Islam calligraphy became important. According to scholars “ the divine revelation created the need to record every word of holy Quran in exact detail, heroic feats of memory could no longer be relied upon. The Arab fascination with the beauty of spoken word coupled with the limitations of existing Arabic scripts played a positive role in the development of Arabic calligraphy as an art form.” Because Arabs were very interested in poetry before and after Islam, they began to develop Arabic script to an aesthetic calligraphic and be as an art form.
In 651 A.D the first copies of the holy Quran were written in the scripts of Mecca and Medina local variants of Jazm. Later, Kufi style was created from Jazm script and then led to a large amount of variation about 150 types.
Big Change:
The first change that took place in the written language was the insertion of diacritic points .
Other fonts:
Naskhi: 10th century, it was used for copying the holy quran. Nashi is characterized by short horizental stems and almost equal vertical depth above and below the medial line.
Ta`liq: 15th was developed in Persia spread in Turkey, Pakistan and the Indian sub-continent. Mostly used in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Diwani: Based on Ta`liq with less dramatic hanging baselines,
Riq`a: From the 15th century but became dominant at the early 19th century. It is used in Egypt.
Thuluth: Back to the 7th century but it didn’t develop until the late 9th century. Ornamental scripts and the lines are used for calligraphic inscription, titles and headings.
Kufic: Achieved a level of perfection at the 7th century. The script is characterized by its static, rectangular lines and the short vertical stokes and extended horizontal lines.
Sources: Arabic for Designers. Author: Mourad Boutros
Friday, February 8, 2008
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