The TypoArabic research project concluded on 3 June 2022, and I am delighted to announce that its principal output, the edited volume Arabic Typography: History and Practice, has now been published by niggli. As foreshadowed in a post on the TypoArabic blog in June 2021, a group of esteemed colleagues were invited to contribute chapters […]
When creating a document with text in the Arabic script on a computer, the process is all but identical to the one for a Latin script text. There is a rectangular text area, usually defined by margins, that is filled with text, just like a basin is filled with water. Subject to the features of […]
Last week I have submitted print-ready and ebook-ready files of my book Arabic Type-Making in the Machine Age: The influence of Technology on the Form of Arabic Type 1908–1993, which is going to be published by the Dutch publisher Brill next month. As the blurb says without any false modesty, this is the first in-depth […]
In August 2012 I was contacted by Dafi Kühne, a colleague from Zürich. He needed a hand with some Arabic typesetting for a large poster project that was to feature at the 13th international Architecture exhibition at the Biennale di Venezia, 2012. Dafi is a poster designer and printer, and initially only needed help with […]
The Nassim typeface family has been awarded another design prize. After receiving prior honours from the Type Directors Club and the European Design Awards in 2007, and the London-based Design Museum in 2008, Nassim features now among the 53 entries that have been selected for their design excellence by the ATypI jury, formed of prominent […]
London: The BBC Persian website follows its Arabic sister site in choosing Nassim to deliver its news. It is thus the second World Service language site with a ‘complex script’ that implements the BBC’s new global visual language with its specific focus on typography as the primary design element. An honourable role and a […]
London: Following the redesign of the mother-page of the BBC News in July last year, today the BBC Arabic launched their new website. It is probably one of the first, and certainly the biggest site yet to use webfonts – Arabic webfonts that is. Typography as a defining element of the site This is an […]
Today, on January 11, 2011, the new digital typefoundry Rosetta, dedicated to multilingual typography has launched its website. Admitted, my personal view on Rosetta is slightly biased as they are going to distribute my typefaces Aisha and Nassim. Yet, I figure I had good reasons to choose collaborating with Rosetta in the first place, and […]
My first visit for the academic year 2010-11 reconnects with the same bunch of students I taught earlier this year in March and May. On the first day the students, now in their third year (which also designates the third year of the graphic department of the ESAV) will continue to develop their skills and […]
I am back at the ESAV in Marrakech for another week of type education with the second year students in the Laboratoire Expérimental de Typographie Arabe. During my first week in March we worked with stencils, as I described briefly in this earlier post. However, the stencil work, chosen to add a manual component to […]