What's this old metal arabic typeface?

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Abdurrahman Hanif
Abdurrahman Hanif Posts: 13
edited July 24 in Type History

I often see this arabic typeface in old printing, does anyone know what's this typeface name and what's the history?

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  • mitradranirban
    mitradranirban Posts: 80
    edited July 23
    As per TypeDrawers rules, typeface identification queries are better directed towards  specialized forum like fontid.co
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,447
    Yes, TypeDrawers rules discourage font ID requests, although in the case of historical metal types exceptions have been made.
  • Abdurrahman Hanif
    Abdurrahman Hanif Posts: 13
    John Hudson said:
    Yes, TypeDrawers rules discourage font ID requests, although in the case of historical metal types exceptions have been made.
    Thank you, i am asking this for historical and research purposes so i hope this okay
  • AzizMostafa AzizAli
    AzizMostafa AzizAli Posts: 105
    edited July 24
    Abdurrahman Hanif said:
    ... asking this for historical and research purposes so i hope this okay
    Voluntarily for historical and research purposes?!
    Why not coopoerate with our friend Khaled Hosny https://typedrawers.com/profile/746/Khaled Hosny to redesign the mentioned Arabic typeface?
    As long as I know, he makes Arabic fonts with your favorite free font editor FontForge.
    https://typedrawers.com/discussion/5400/which-is-the-best-free-font-editor/p1

    All the best for both with flowers
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,447
    Khaled commented on the design when I posted a link to typo.social

    Looks like the kind of typeface cut in Europe, but I don’t immediately recognize it (not that I’m very familiar with European Arabic typefaces).

    That rounded ر (and و to lesser extent), look peculiar though. Done to avoid kerning perhaps? Might be a clue that it is not foundry type.

    By ‘not foundry type’, I presume Kahled means that this might be machine-set text.

    https://typo.social/@khaled/114907416986266473
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 3,035
    As in hot metal typesetting (because phototypesetting did allow kerning).

    I know Linotype, Monotype and Intertype all got into Arabic. Some hot metal tech such as Monotype allowed for kerning. Linotype and Intertype did not, so perhaps one of them?
  • Nadine Chahine
    Nadine Chahine Posts: 122
    Are we sure there is no kerning here? Would the Reh-Alef Maksura in the first line be a ligature in such a case? Also, the Reh-Yeh in first line is surely kerned.

    My gut feeling is that this is hand set because the shape of Alef Maksura in the first line is wrong but in the 3rd line is correct, which indicates human error.

    There seems to be slight wavering in the baseline and that also indicates (at least to my eyes and limited knowledge) that this is hand set and not machine made. If machine made, then the matrices were seriously wobbly!

    Also good to keep in mind the text is not Arabic and the style feels more Persian in any case. Perhaps Borna might know?


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