It is time for a new era in Arabic Type Design. An era in which the script is the source of typographic information. What we ask for may sound obvious and it is. Understanding the script then moving to type is nowhere near innovative. In Arabic however - contrary to popular belief - this bridge has not yet been made.

ATDB or Arabic Type Design - Beirut is the first intensive program entirely dedicated to Arabic type design. Its first rendition took place between July 11th and August 19th 2016. Below is an account of why the program came about and how it happened.

Documentation and research that lead to design of Arabic newspaper typeface

This article presents the Diwani style of Arabic which lead to designing Thuraya, a contemporary yet faithful interpretation of the Diwani style with extensive calligraphic features.

Greta Arabic is the counterpart of Greta Sans type system. This text is a reflection on the journey of creating and developing the first Arabic type system of this scale .

The rounded sibling of Kanun and Arabic counterpart of Typotheque's October.

Kanun is an Arabic signage type family carefully crafted to also handle long texts.

Fedra Arabic Display is a collection of extreme light and dark fonts for large sizes. All styles have been optimised for compact settings.

Kristyan Sarkis is a type designer and lettering artist, born in Beirut and based in Amsterdam. He holds a Master in Type & Media from the Roy...

TPTQ Arabic is a type foundry and typography consultancy from The Hague, Netherlands that develops and sells original Arabic and Latin typefaces.