Typography: Behind the Arabetic Calligraphy Veil

Visible Language, 2006 by Abulhab, Saad D

ABSTRACT

In the change from scriptural writing systems to textual mechanical systems and most recently to digital, computer generated text, some languages and their typographic representations have suffered. One such language, along with its visible language representation, that has not made a smooth transition is Arabic. The author argues that misinterpreting language tradition prevents what he calls Arabetic typography from embracing an appropriate technological adaptation. Putting forth an evolutionary argument, he critiques the notion that calligraphic styles must prevail and that legibility and readability of Arabic characters are objective. He further states that the resulting typefaces, when the so-called 'Arabic script rules' are abandoned, are similar in visual impact to the 'free calligraphy' typefaces already widely used in the marketplace. Finally he challenges the notion that technological maturity has been reached in digital character input and generation. Following these critiques, he demonstrates the awkward input system for Arabetic text and proposes a Natural Arabetic Input Method. A political and economic subtext runs throughout the essay

INTRODUCTION

Arabetic typography is clearly a subject still surrounded with intense debates. As an international field, the forces governing its progress are still primarily in the western world despite efforts by many to make it look otherwise. This is not surprising since the defining technology behind Arabetic computing continues to be developed outside the Arabic and Muslim worlds, unlike many other scripts where local expertise and innovation are increasingly dominant with international corporations playing a key role. In our global interdependent economy, driven by global technology, Arabetic typography and computing have much less opportunity to freely evolve through local intrinsic forces as others did, especially when it is being restricted by today's complex high tech solutions. But fortunately it does not, and would not need to, do it locally. Instead, Arabetic typography needs only to adhere to the rules of global competition, economical and technological, to succeed, flourish or even survive. Arabic should once again be faithful to its historical past of creative flexibility and adaptability. It should embrace technology by becoming an independent loyal partner to it, not a dependent burden on it. It should embrace simplification and abandon exaggerated rules that compromise both its users and its ability to survive global competition. Arabetic typography must free itself from its handwriting-imposed conventions in a script world not governed anymore by handwriting rules alone.

WHY ARABETIC? WHY NOT ARABIC?

For a careful reader, the first question for this essay should be: why Arabetic and not Arabic? When we first used the word Arabetic in an article about Arabetic typography, we argued that for those involved in the fields of Arabic and derived scripts, Urdu, Farsi, Pashto and Kurdish, for example, there is no single, clear and user friendly Latin word to address them all at once (Abulhab, 2004). A term like 'Latin' can acceptably be used to refer to all Latin based scripts. One can obviously use the limiting word 'Arabic' alienating many in the non-Arabic speaking world or even invoking their objections, let alone compromising intellectual and scientific facts. But also, in our current world's political and economical picture, the need for a unifying term is essential. Arabetic is a unifying term. It has enough flavor of Arabic for the Arabs to appreciate and take appropriate credit for. But at the same time, it is not pure "Arabic," which can justifiably cause sensitivity and may even sound dismissive of those historically crucial and defining contributions of non-Arab users, calligraphers and civilizations to the Arabic language and script. Arabetic is a single, inclusive and unambiguous word to address all these scripts at once without compromising their distinct and unique characteristics.

Using one word to address all Arabic based writing systems is not an artificially proclaimed necessity nor is a cosmetic contribution. Behind our one term is an explicit call for unity and therefore strength. Typography projects are complex, costly and time consuming. The economics of typography has its own independent factors. The days when a nation would emphasize a calligraphy style as a sign of its power and grace are gone. Today for example, Western typographers design for multiple Latin scripts, contributing positively to the availability, user choice and economics of Latin typography as a whole. Internationalization and Unicode have even paved the way for creating fonts with harmonized multi-script styles. Insisting on presenting Naskh Taliq as uncompromising separate national identity script styles can only hurt the typographical and technological development of Arabic, Urdu and Persian scripts. Arabetic type designers must create commonly accepted and used typefaces in order to survive globally. They must work jointly to make available rich Arabetic font libraries not exaggerated exclusive national type styles.