About the Mutamathil Type Style: An extended simplified Arabic font design style with a visually unique detached or isolated glyph per letter for Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Kurdish and other Arabetic scripts

Introduction

The Mutamathil (Arabic: symmetric and unified) type style was created in the yeras 1998-2000 as an Arabetic* type style employing glyphs/characters representative of the extended Arabic characters, which are generally symmetric to facilitate bi-directional use, uniform to render a single glyph per letter, and independent to compose non-cursive text strings. Typefaces and fonts created following this initial style can be thought of as generic, calligraphy-free, and technology-friendly Arabetic types and fonts. The embodiment of the Mutamathil style lettering in various articles of manufacture (e.g. computer software and hardware, communication systems, image printing, translation software, Arabetic languages teaching tools) would introduce significantly less complex systems delivering extended Arabic texts in a form closely resembling their traditional ones. In computer systems, it would facilitate the use of various Arabetic lettering on articles designed for Latin lettering, with a slight or no alteration of such articles’ original design making such system as font-only dependent as possible.

Examine the linked Unicode tables, which include glyphs/characters of the three members of the initial fonts/prototypes of the Mutamathil type style: Mutamathil, Mutamathil Taqlidi (traditional Mutamathil), and Mutamathil Mutlaq (bi-directional Mutamathil), and their traditional Arabic characters corresponding tables. Notice that glyphs in each of these tables correspond, in a one to one relation, to all Arabetic characters both in their connected and detached forms. The look and feel of these glyphs reflect only our specific implementation of the Mutamathil type style open design principles. It is limited by the calligraphic and artistic experiences and capabilities of the designer. The following are some of the general design principles or considerations behind this new style:



Introduction The Mutamathil (Arabic: symmetric and unified) type style was created in the yeras 1998-2000 as an Arabetic* type style employing glyphs/characters representative of the extended Arabic characters, which are generally symmetric to facilitate bi-directional use, uniform to render a single glyph per letter, and independent to compose non-cursive text strings. Typefaces and fonts created following this initial style can be thought of as generic, calligraphy-free, and technology-friendly Arabetic types and fonts. The embodiment of the Mutamathil style lettering in various articles of manufacture (e.g. computer software and hardware, communication systems, image printing, translation software, Arabetic languages teaching tools) would introduce significantly less complex systems delivering extended Arabic texts in a form closely resembling their traditional ones. In computer systems, it would facilitate the use of various Arabetic lettering on articles designed for Latin lettering, with a slight or no alteration of such articles’ original design making such system as font-only dependent as possible. Examine the linked Unicode tables, which include glyphs/characters of the three members of the initial fonts/prototypes of the Mutamathil type style: Mutamathil, Mutamathil Taqlidi (traditional Mutamathil), and Mutamathil Mutlaq (bi-directional Mutamathil), and their traditional Arabic characters corresponding tables. Notice that glyphs in each of these tables correspond, in a one to one relation, to all Arabetic characters both in their connected and detached forms. The look and feel of these glyphs reflect only our specific implementation of the Mutamathil type style open design principles. It is limited by the calligraphic and artistic experiences and capabilities of the designer. The following are some of the general design principles or considerations behind this new style: One glyph or shape per character to reduce glyphs number and eliminate excessive forming Only limited number of letters may have additional "final shape" glyphs as an option Unicodes are assigned to the one glyph above eliminating the concept of "isolated form" A glyph may be virtually symmetric around its vertical axis to facilitate possible bi-directionality Glyphs have unique characteristics taking into consideration extended Arabic characters Glyphs have independent forms to render non-cursive text and preserve letters integrity Glyphs fit within specific boundary dimensions with variable x-heights to match traditional Arabic, and fixed width Glyphs resemble traditional forms including historical calligraphic shape occurrences letter shapes chosen based on glyphs (not letters) statistical occurring frequencies Ligatures optional not required Diacritics positioned in uniform locations clearly distinguished from glyphs bodies Open design to encourage the creation of new types maintaining similar principles of design The Three Font Families of the Mutamathil Type Style Mutamathil: This type family is the mid size member of the Mutamathil type style. It has only one glyph for every basic Arabic Unicode character or letter. With each glyph being semi symmetrical around its vertical axis, this family is mainly suitable for right to left ordering. The Mutamathil family includes all required Lam-Alif ligatures and uses ligature substitutions, and marks positioning but it does not use any other glyph substitutions or forming. Text strings composed using types of this family are non-cursive with stand alone isolated glyphs. The Mutamathil Taqlidi family includes both Arabic and Arabic-Indic numerals, all required diacritic marks, in addition to all standard English keyboard punctuation and major currency symbols. It is available in regular, italic, bold, and bold italic styles. Mutamathil Taqlidi: This type family is the largest size member of the Mutamathil type style. It has one glyph for every basic Arabic Unicode character or letter and one additional, final-position, glyph for each Arabic letter that is normally connected with other letters from both sides in traditional cursive Arabic strings. With each glyph being slightly symmetrical around its vertical axis, this family is only suitable for right to left ordering. The Mutamathil Taqlidi family includes all required Lam-Alif ligatures and uses final position glyph substitutions, ligature substitutions, and marks positioning. Text strings composed using types of this family are non-cursive with stand alone isolated glyphs.The Mutamathil Taqlidi family includes both Arabic and Arabic-Indic numerals, all required diacritic marks, in addition to all standard English keyboard punctuation and major currency symbols. It is available in regular, italic, bold, and bold italic styles. Mutamathil Mutlaq: This type family is the smallest size member of the Mutamathil type style. It has one glyph per basic Arabic Unicode character or letter. Each glyph is completely symmetrical around its vertical axis to facilitate bi-directional ordering. This family does not include any required ligatures and does not use glyph substitutions or forming but it does use marks positioning. Text strings composed using types of this family are non-cursive with stand alone isolated glyphs. The Mutamathil Mutlaq family includes both Arabic and Arabic-Indic numerals, all required diacritic marks, in addition to all standard English keyboard punctuation and major currency symbols. It is available in regular and bold styles. To appreciate Mutlaq, compare it with a left to right ordered traditional Arabic font, utilizing Arabetics Basic Java bidi editor The Mutamathil Type Style as an Open Design Style The Mutamathil type style is not intended to replace the rich and magnificent historical Arabetic calligraphy or typography styles. The shapes introduced in this style, like any other style, should never be thought of as final or required shapes. The principles of the Mutamathil type style design addresses the challenges of literacy, education, economics, technology, globalism, competition, as well as legibility. The main goal and mission of this new style is to make available additional options to users, type designers, and vendors. We believe that Arabetic scripts and types do not require the complexity now associated with them through earlier imposition of typography rules rooted in various historical calligraphic schools. The beautiful calligraphic styles rules should be thought of as options when designing types. In the history of Arabetic or Islamic calligraphy, no school ever claimed to be the final one, and no specific calligraphy school rules were ever imposed on all other schools. This evolutionary historical fact is our deeply rooted inspiring motive behind the Mutamathil type style. The application of the open principles of the Mutamathil styles stated above are not proposed rules for Arabetic typography. They only apply as principles of design to distinguish Mutamathil types from others. Furthermore not all of them are required for the creation of each Mutamathil style font. Some of these principles apply to all fonts but others are specific to one of the three styles. Open, free design is the main principle of the Mutamathil type style. This is why we have introduced three styles in one. Articles, Patents, and Other Related Links The Mutamathil type style, created by type designer, librarian, and systems engineer Saad D. Abulhab, which was awarded U.S. Design Patent No. D435,584 in the year 2000 and U.S. Utility Patent No. 6,704,116 in 2004, was not meant as an alphabetic replacement of traditional Arabetic scripts or calligraphy; it is rather an attempt to enrich these scripts by offering new flexible and simple type choices that can help simplify the learning of these scripts and address the complex economical and technological aspects associated with them in today's global competitive market. Major Arabic, English, and other international newspapers, journals, websites and media outlets have brought attention to the Mutamathil type style. Coverage was both critical and supportive. In 2004, the widely circulated Arabic newspaper "al-Sharq al-Awsat" published a featured article (corrected later ) with excerpts of an interview with the designer. The full interview given to "al-Sharq al-Awsat" can be read on Hiba Studio website. Another article was published by the designer in the same newspaper in response to a series of articles debating the Mutamathil other simplified Arabic styles. Also, the "New York Times" business section featured a main article about the Mutamathil type style and its US Utility Patent award. The U.S. based "Wild River Review", a prestegous on-line journal about Art and litreture, published an interview with the designer in November 2007. It also published the well known poem "Layl al-Hamra" by the leading Iraqi and Arab poet Saadi Yusuf, set with one of the desiners fonts: Sumeri. Several Articles were published by the designer regarding the Mutamathil Type Style and the Arabic script in general. An article (html, PDF) introducing the Mutamathil type style and discussing Arabetic typography in general appeared in the journal "Visible Language", issue 38.3, 2004, under the title "The Mutamathil Type Style: Towards Free, Technology-Friendly, Arabetic Types". The Arabic translation of this article is available on this site. A second article (PDF) titled "Typography Behind the Arabetic Calligraphy Veil" discussing the style among other topics was pulished in issue 40.3, 2006, of the same magazine. Two other articles are due in the early year 2008. The first is "Anatomy of an Arabetic Type Design" which will appear in "Visible Language", issue 42.1, 2008. The second article will appear in the New York based quarterly journal "Sawt Dahish" in two parts. The title of the article is "Roots of Modern Arabic Script: From Musnad to Jazm". Both articles are in English.


* "Arabetic" was introduced and first used by the creator of the Mutamathil type style, in the year 2000, as a more accurate, descriptive, and inclusive adjective word than “Arabic” when referring collectively to all scripts utilizing letters of the original Arabic script (i.e. Urdu, Persian, Kurdish, Peshtu ..etc.)