FF Seria Arabic - First Arabic Speaking FontFont
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FF Seria Arabic - First Arabic Speaking FontFont
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Created: 06/10/09
Last Edited: 06/10/09
Views: 1287
Appreciations: 51
Project Info
Owners
Tags
FSI, FontShop International, FSI FontShop International, FontFont, FontShop, Typeface, Typography, Typedesign, Fonts, Font, FF Seria, FF Seria Arabic, Sada, Seria, Arabic, typeinuse, fontsinuse, fontsinuse FF Seria Arabic, fontsinuse Seria, font:FF Seria Arabic, font:Seria, Martin Majoor, Pascal Zoghbi, Zoghbi, Majoor, text face, Arabic typeface, Farsi, Urdu
FF Seria® Arabic, originally called Sada, by designer Pascal Zoghbi, is an Arabic type companion to FF Seria®, designed in the nineties by Martin Majoor. The Arabic type family was part of the Typographic Matchmaking 01 project organised by the Khatt Foundation. Echo, which means “Sada” in Arabic, is the repetition of a sound caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface. Accordingly, Sada/Seria® Arabic is the echo of FF Seria®. FF Seria® Arabic is a young crispy type based on the Arabic Nasekh style. The Regular and Bold are text typefaces, the Light is both display and text type, while the Black is purely a display typeface.
The beta versions of Sada Regular and Sada Bold were released with the
Typographic Matchmaking book in August 2007. The Arabic typeface works
well together with FF Seria® as with all modern serif fonts that share
similar proportions and characteristics as Seria. FF Seria® Arabic also
functions as an independent Arabic modern type.
FF Seria® Arabic combines basic Latin (Western) and Arabic character
sets. As FF Seria® does not have any Light and Black variants, the
Seria® Arabic Light comes with Seria® Regular Western characters
instead, while Seria® Arabic Black contains the Western characters of
Seria® Bold. Type designer and engineer Hasan Abu Afash programmed the
OpenType layout features that are needed for the Arabic script system.
Characteristics
SHARP CURVES & ENDINGS
FF Seria® Arabic consists of two different kinds of sharpness applied in the structure of the letters. When the stroke flows into a closed counter (a loop), only the sharp corner is applied on the inner part of the curve, and when the stoke flows into an open counter, the sharpness is applied both on the inner and the outer part of the curve.
NASKH & KUFI BASED STRUCTURES
Since Sada/FF Seria® Arabic has to work with the serif FF Seria®, a Naskh based structure was adopted with a high contrast structure based on the broad nib pen. Yet, the weight in FF Seria® is applied on the horizontal strokes and not on the diagonals as in a traditional broad nib based structure. As a result, the weight in FF Seria® Arabic had to be moved from the diagonals to the verticals and make the structure of the glyphs more straightened up.
The solution was to make all the toothed glyphs and the right side of looped glyphs straightened up and the weight applied on the vertical (which is more Kufik), while the stroke in the left side of the glyph was kept flowing more calligraphically and the weight is applied on the diagonal (which is more Naskh). This combination gave FF Seria® Arabic a unique feel.
OPEN COUNTERS
Unlike most Arabic fonts, the counter shapes in FF Seria® Arabic are well opened and will not clot up at small point sizes. Additionally, the open counters enable FF Seria® Arabic to acquire more weights (from Thin to Black) and make it more legible and readable.
PROPORTIONALITY OF THE GLYPHS
Usually in Arabic font the ascenders and descenders are taller than the loop and tooth heights. That makes the Arabic script feel like it is a line with some upper and lower strokes coming out of it. In FF Seria® Arabic, there is an even balance between the loop height, tooth height, ascender and descender. This gives the font a more balanced look.
COLOR OF THE TEXT
The color of FF Seria® Arabic in a set text is even. The grey of the text is the same as the grey of the Roman type. This is because the glyphs are proportional.
NO STRAIGHT BASELINE
FF Seria® Arabic is a marriage between a stiff straight baseline and a very calligraphic curvy one. The glyphs connect in a slight curve but at the same time define a very clear baseline. The glyphs connect in a slight curve but at the same time define a very clear baseline. The glyphs sit clearly on the baseline without having a robust straight line.
LANGUAGES SUPPORT & FIGURES
FF Seria® Arabic supports Arabic, Farsi and Urdu Languages and offers the choice between Arabic hanging figures, Indic figures, Farsi figures and Urdu Figures. Usually, most of the Arabic typefaces only have the Indic figures while a few other new Arabic typefaces have lining Arabic figures. Since there are no capitals in the Arabic script, lining uppercase Arabic figures look bigger than the Arabic text. My solution was to borrow the hanging figures of FF Seria® and modify them to work better with the Arabic script.
SHARP CURVES & ENDINGS
FF Seria® Arabic consists of two different kinds of sharpness applied in the structure of the letters. When the stroke flows into a closed counter (a loop), only the sharp corner is applied on the inner part of the curve, and when the stoke flows into an open counter, the sharpness is applied both on the inner and the outer part of the curve.
NASKH & KUFI BASED STRUCTURES
Since Sada/FF Seria® Arabic has to work with the serif FF Seria®, a Naskh based structure was adopted with a high contrast structure based on the broad nib pen. Yet, the weight in FF Seria® is applied on the horizontal strokes and not on the diagonals as in a traditional broad nib based structure. As a result, the weight in FF Seria® Arabic had to be moved from the diagonals to the verticals and make the structure of the glyphs more straightened up.
The solution was to make all the toothed glyphs and the right side of looped glyphs straightened up and the weight applied on the vertical (which is more Kufik), while the stroke in the left side of the glyph was kept flowing more calligraphically and the weight is applied on the diagonal (which is more Naskh). This combination gave FF Seria® Arabic a unique feel.
OPEN COUNTERS
Unlike most Arabic fonts, the counter shapes in FF Seria® Arabic are well opened and will not clot up at small point sizes. Additionally, the open counters enable FF Seria® Arabic to acquire more weights (from Thin to Black) and make it more legible and readable.
PROPORTIONALITY OF THE GLYPHS
Usually in Arabic font the ascenders and descenders are taller than the loop and tooth heights. That makes the Arabic script feel like it is a line with some upper and lower strokes coming out of it. In FF Seria® Arabic, there is an even balance between the loop height, tooth height, ascender and descender. This gives the font a more balanced look.
COLOR OF THE TEXT
The color of FF Seria® Arabic in a set text is even. The grey of the text is the same as the grey of the Roman type. This is because the glyphs are proportional.
NO STRAIGHT BASELINE
FF Seria® Arabic is a marriage between a stiff straight baseline and a very calligraphic curvy one. The glyphs connect in a slight curve but at the same time define a very clear baseline. The glyphs connect in a slight curve but at the same time define a very clear baseline. The glyphs sit clearly on the baseline without having a robust straight line.
LANGUAGES SUPPORT & FIGURES
FF Seria® Arabic supports Arabic, Farsi and Urdu Languages and offers the choice between Arabic hanging figures, Indic figures, Farsi figures and Urdu Figures. Usually, most of the Arabic typefaces only have the Indic figures while a few other new Arabic typefaces have lining Arabic figures. Since there are no capitals in the Arabic script, lining uppercase Arabic figures look bigger than the Arabic text. My solution was to borrow the hanging figures of FF Seria® and modify them to work better with the Arabic script.
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