29LT Idris is a modern typeface combining an Arabic Naskh calligraphic style with a Serif Latin. It has two versions: Sharp and Flat, each with five weights, making a total of ten styles. As a versatile visual communication tool, it offers two distinct typographic voices. Both versions can be used for display type, while the Flat version is recommended for body text.

A contemporary Arabic Naskh, rooted in calligraphic logic and inspired by a 1950s typeface, makes it ideal as a publishing typeface. Its echoing Serif Latin lends the typeface a unique design approach and high level of legibility.

The Discovery

In the spring of 2023, Pascal Zoghbi’s trip to Lebanon sparked the start of the project with a visit to the American Press archive at Jafet Library at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the private archive of John Kortbawi of the Catholic Press of Beirut. The former operated during 1834–1964, and the latter during 1848–2000, both contributing significantly to the intellectual and printing boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Among several type specimens and catalogues from different phases and foundries, one caught Pascal’s attention – the Berthold Probe Nr. 451, a type specimen showcasing the Berthold Arabisch Halbfett Nr. 49 typeface. It evoked a strong sense of nostalgia as he felt it belonged to a specific era in Lebanese and Middle Eastern publications, reminiscent of his childhood and teenage years.

With the outlines of the glyphs still vivid in Pascal’s mind, he later discovered the same typeface among nine Arabic lead-type cases at his place in Lebanon. He had purchased a set of cases from Nabil Shwaya’s letterpress (aka Socrates Press) in the Shouf area in 2007, when several lead-type printing presses still operated. Pascal had been teaching at Notre Dame University (NDU) Shouf Campus alongside Prof. John Kortbawi, who had introduced him to the presses during student visits about the history of printing technology.

Nabil Shwaya’s letterpress (aka Socrates Press) in Shouf

Pascal’s lead type case of Berthold Arabisch Halbfett Nr. 49

Additionally, Pascal recalled discussing this typeface with Reza Abidini, a renowned Iranian graphic designer and artist, during a typography class they taught at AUB in the fall of 2011. They had been exploring a collection of Arabic Letraset sheets to share with their students as a source of inspiration, and one was the Letraset Naskh Berthold sheet, the Letraset version of Berthold Arabisch Halbfett Nr. 49.

After completing his master’s in Type and Media at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) in 2006, Pascal returned to Lebanon, teaching typography and design courses as a part-time instructor between 2007 and 2015 at NDU, LAU, and AUB.

The Research (The finding)

Back in Madrid, where 29Letters Type Foundry S.L. (aka 29LT) has been based since 2017, Pascal began researching the typeface. His first significant online discovery was an article titled “H. Berthold AG’s matrices, reference castings & casting slips in the Deutsches Technikmuseum’s depot” by Dr. Dan Raynolds, featuring a showcased matrix of Berthold Arabisch Halbfett Garnitur Nr. 49.

Dan shared with him some key points about Berthold’s history based on his PhD study; he also put Pascal in touch with Kerstin Wallbach, MA Historian at the Collections and Exhibitions Department of the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin, and Marcel Ruhl, Dipl. Archivist at the Historical Archive there. Both happily shared scans of catalogued photographs of the Berthold Arabisch Halbfett Garnitur Nr. 49 typeface.

Berthold Arabisch Halbfett Garnitur Nr. 49 matrixes at Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin

Although not all Berthold materials are catalogued in the archive, Pascal’s interest and Kerstin and Marcel’s professionalism led to all the required information. Important unarchived folders were found, catalogued, and shared, enabling Pascal to cover all the historical and design aspects of his research. 

Watch Pascal’s talk at Typographics 2023 at Cooper Union, New York, USA, where he tells an exciting story about the findings and process of the research.

Archive material shared with Pascal included:

1. Matrices photographs
2. Scans of test prints
3. Scans of correspondence
4. Scans of hand corrections and feedback on test prints
5. Scans of original drawings

Correspondence between Berthold and Salim

With the latest catalogued folder revealing the original hand drawings of the typeface, the mystery of the typeface designer was solved: the drawings were signed by Salim Al Habschi. Some scanty information revealed that he was a surrealist artist and Arabic calligrapher from Egypt in the 1950s, and of Indonesian origin.

Salim Al Habschi

Salim Al Habschi, also known as Mogli, was born in Indonesia in 1924. He moved to the Netherlands in 1937 and then settled in Egypt. After secondary education at the Farouk I School, he pursued a four-year degree in Medicine at Cairo University. He then studied calligraphy and earned a diploma. In 1949, he left Egypt for the Netherlands but returned to Egypt in 1953 to join the Contemporary Art Group and actively exhibit his work. At the time, he was considered an outsider to the traditional Egyptian Renaissance art movement.

Salim’s surrealist paintings

With intricate brushwork, his artistic style combined Indonesian drawing techniques with Egyptian landscapes, making him an “anomaly” in the Egyptian art scene of the post-war era. However, his vibrant, colorful, and metaphysical paintings established him as a prominent figure within the Contemporary Art Group. His artistic development falls into three distinct phases: his early works were surrealist, evolving into a colourful and naive style inspired by his homeland until 1948, and later transitioning into abstraction, where human and natural forms melded into a dreamy world, blurring the lines between the macabre and the fantastical. His inclination towards vibrant and naive colours directly reflected his upbringing in the rural farmlands of Java, Indonesia.

Salim’s original glyphs drawings of Berthold Arabisch Halbfett Garnitur Nr. 49

Biographical information comes from various sources, including the Al Masar Gallery and Christie’s. Pascal also found that Salim was discovered and mentored by the Arabic calligrapher Mr. Hussein Youssef Amin in the 1940s, and that he was a type designer who collaborated with Berthold in the 1950s to design the font Berthold Arabisch Halbfett Garnitur Nr. 49.

The Name

After the research phase, Pascal started thinking of a name to embody the research and the various print mediums in which the font was used from the 1960s to the 1990s. Since it was one of the main Arabic fonts used in school textbooks, literature, and commercial magazines, Pascal chose the name “Idris” from a long list of other potential names. Idris (إدريس) means “studious” and “smart” in Arabic, originating from the word “to study” or “to learn,” (إدرس) in Arabic. The new name represents the redesigned look and expanded type system of Berthold Arabisch Halbfett Garnitur Nr. 49.

The Design Analysis

Before creating digital outlines, Pascal needed to make a few physical prints using the lead type he had brought from Lebanon. Since it was difficult to ship the full case of Nr. 49, Pascal selected the best and cleanest lead pieces of each glyph in the character set.

In Madrid, he reached out to his colleague and friend Juanjo López, a Spanish type designer and one of the co-founders of Familia Plomez, a lead-type printing press there. They conducted test prints on various types of paper using different press pressures and ink densities.

After this, Pascal could compare them with the scans of the found material, and start digitally drawing the outlines.

To thoroughly analyse the design and determine the final outlines, the basic character set had to be digitised to 100% match the Berthold Halbfett design. The German word “Halbfett” translates to “half-fat” or “half-bold”, or “Medium”. Therefore, the Medium style was digitised first, before expanding the weight range to include Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, and ExtraBold. After developing the outlines for the extreme weights (Light and ExtraBold), extensive adjustments and fine-tuning of the outlines were necessary. The intermediary Medium instance and the original drawn half-bold were compared during the adjustment of the extreme weights, until an acceptable result was attained.

The Arabic New Design Approach

As Pascal expanded the weight axis, it became clear that some letters in the original design only worked well in the medium weight, but they posed problems in the light and bold weights. Upon deeper analysis of these letters with the calligraphic Naskh letter structures, it was evident that their structure was far from correct Naskh standards, making it difficult to draw them well in all styles.

Wissam Shawkat’s calligraphic feedback and outlines corrections following the proper Naskh style approach

After consulting Naskh calligraphic books, Pascal decided to seek the opinion of Wissam Shawkat, a renowned Arabic calligrapher and artist, regarding the design of Nr. 49 and specifically addressing the problematic glyphs. Wissam advised him to modify the design of certain glyphs to achieve a true Naskh feel while preserving the original spirit of Salim’s design. After a series of advisory sessions, Pascal created the revamped version of Nr. 49, 29LT Idris. This new typeface drew inspiration from Nr. 49 but was not a 100% revival.

Here is a list of changes he made to key glyphs:

1. Alef Isolated: straightened.
2. Hah brow in all positions: removed the Nabra and removed the rectangular shape.
3. Ain Medial and Final head: balanced counter and shaper right corner.
4. Kaf Initial: redefined the angle of the Nabra.
5. Kaf Isolated: replaced an open bowl horizontal on the baseline with a closed one.
6. Meem Initial: redrew the counter and removed the sharp end stroke on the left part.
7. Meem Medial: completely redrew the counter shape following the correct Naskh pen flow and contrast.
8. Heh Medial alternate: completely redrew the counter shape following the correct Naskh pen flow and contrast.
9. Heh Final: regulated the contrast between the upper and lower part of the triangular counter.
10. Heh Isolated: completely redrew the counter shape following the correct Naskh pen flow and contrast.

In addition to these changes, the outlines were fine-tuned, contrast was fixed, open and closed counters were adjusted, tails redrawn, the size of the cups and bellies were redefined based on the new proportions, and the ascender and descender heights were changed to preserve the correct proportions throughout the expanded styles. In brief, the new digital outlines of the typeface are completely different from the original Nr. 49, even though the same design concept and approach were followed.

Once the new design approach was defined, the super family was expanded from Sharp to Flat, following the same concept as in 29LT Ada typeface. Besides the Contrast and Weight axes created for the development of the Sharp and Flat styles, a third Extension axis was added for the variable font, enabling the extension of the Arabic baseline and cups.

The Application of the Latest Arabic Type Technology 

Pascal’s idea was to revive the typeface as if Salim were designing it today, using the latest Arabic font technology. Since 2020, 29LT has sought to release the highest quality Arabic fonts and push the boundaries of the type industry. It all started with 29LT Ada, where lessons learned were expanded upon in creating 29LT Idris.

With Ada, the goal had been to develop a contemporary Ruq’aa style typeface that addressed issues such as the escalating baseline, contextual glyph alterations based on word composition, contextual diacritical dots and accents positioning in relation to base letterforms, and elevation kerning in broken word structures. 

Similar issues were addressed while creating 29LT Idris, but the composition needed to follow the Arabic Naskh style instead of the Ruq’aa. The baseline slant changed from 5° to 2°, making the elevation kerning not as problematic, but still, the same elevation kerning technique was improved and implemented. Additionally, the contextual alterations in the Naskh style are more complex than the Ruq’aa, requiring an advanced approach to create the contextual alternate OpenType feature.

Baseline Slant

29LT Idris maintains the same design spirit as the original Nr. 49, but now includes a 2° baseline slant. This change brings the typeface closer to a calligraphic Naskh style rather than a Mastari one. Mastari Naskh fonts have a simple design with a straight baseline and limited characters, while calligraphic Naskh fonts have an inclined baseline and a wider range of characters.

Contextual Alternatives 

When the diacritic dots are removed, the original basic character set of Nr. 49 contains around forty fixed sets of two or three Arabic letters combinations (aka ligatures). In 29LT Idris, the number of possible letter combinations is in the thousands. By using the latest OpenType features supporting the Arabic script, approximately 400 alternating base forms were created. These can then generate thousands of possible two, three, or four Arabic letter combinations depending on the context of a specific Arabic word.

Contextual Anchors

The diacritic dots and accents in 29LT Idris are not fixed to the base forms. They are positioned dynamically using OpenType coding while typing. In some word combinations, the dots or accents may overlap with certain base letters. To address this issue, contextual anchors (also known as conditional anchors) are included and coded in the typeface to adjust the positioning of the dots or accents, avoiding overlaps in specific word combinations.

Contextual and Elevation Kerning 

The non-horizontal nature of 29LT Idris demands a new and intuitive elevation kerning solution. This is because the slanting baseline results in an indefinite number of possibilities in the vertical placement of letters in Arabic words. Short words escalate less than longer ones, and some Arabic letters, mainly the Arabic letters Meem and Hah, shift the baseline higher than others. Additionally, some words have breaking letters (such as the letters Alef, Dal, Reh, Waw, etc.), and the hanging baseline breaks and white space occur within the word itself. Kerning becomes problematic since the letter spacing is not fixed and horizontal like standard typefaces, but is changeable, diagonal, and vertical.  

Advanced contextual kerning needs to be applied based on vertical marking or leveling. The main task is to assign an elevation marker for each initial Arabic letterform and apply a certain kerning value based on the vertical height of this letter and the isolated or final Arabic letter preceding it from the right. The higher an initial Arabic letterform is from the base level, the higher the value of the negative kerning; the closer it is to the descender, the lower the value. 

In addition to the above features, 29LT Idris includes several stylistic sets for alternative letterforms, along with various swashes and kashida lengths that can be implemented into the typeface.

Alef Backward Ending (Stylistic Set 1)

LamAlef Crossed (Stylistic Set 2)

Heh Medial Open (Stylistic Set 3)

Kaf Swash (Stylistic Set 4)

Meem Swash (Stylistic Set 5)

Cups Swashes 1 (Stylistic Set 6)

Cups Swashes 2 (Stylistic Set 7)

Cups Swashes 3 (Stylistic Set 8)

Calligraphic kashida can be generated either by applying a stylistic set or by manually inputting the kashidas from the keyboard.

Kashida Extension 1 (Stylistic Set 9)

Stylistic Set activated or 1 kashida inputted manually

Kashida Extension 2 (Stylistic Set 10)

Stylistic Set activated or 2 kashidas inputted manually

Kashida Extension 3 (Stylistic Set 11)

Stylistic Set activated or 3 kashidas inputted manually

Kashida Extension 4 (Stylistic Set 12)

Stylistic Set activated or 4 or more kashidas inputted manually

Standard Quranic Text Support

The typeface supports all Quranic vocalisation marks and symbols, and it also includes the four most common calligrams. Additional ones can be created upon request.

Pascal asked Toshi Omagari, a renowned type designer and font engineer from Japan and based in the UK, to collaborate with him on the font engineering of 29LT Idris as he had done for 29LT Ada. Understanding the logic of smart opentype Arabic fonts, Pascal prepared the required character set with all the basic and alternating glyphs set and implemented a logical naming system for the alternating glyphs to make it user-friendly to edit and code after. Once the design was finalised and all the required alternating glyphs based on the Arabic Naskh calligraphic style were drawn, Toshi took over the file and wrote the required OpenType features for it. Once the code was written, it was time for Pascal to add all the elevation kerning to the typeface based on vertical elevation marks.

The Variable Font

Pascal, building on the concept of incorporating the latest technology, introduced a third Extension axis, complementing the existing Weight and Contrast axes. Unlike the static font versions that set a fixed width for the cups swashes (Stylistic Sets 6 to 8) and limited the kashida extensions (Stylistic Sets 9 to 12) to only four levels, the new Extension axis provides users with an unlimited range of extension width possibilities for the Arabic cups and baseline elongation. This tool will be helpful for users to justify a specific Arabic text or find the exact width of a particular word that they require.

PS: To activate the baseline extension axis, a kashida must be manually inputted after the desired expanding letter. This ensures that the baseline extension is activated only when the decision is correct, similar to what an experienced calligrapher would do. It’s advisable to add only one kashida per word and place it within the word where it won’t disrupt the combination of letters (ligature) and maintain the word’s balance. Imagine creating a balance between two letters clusters in the word, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the middle. Additionally, considering the pronunciation of the word can also be crucial in determining the appropriate placement of the kashida. 

Since this typeface has a 2-degree baseline slant and is meticulously crafted using intricate Arabic contextual alternates code, it’s more advisable to manually adjust the text rather than relying on automatic text adjustment tools in typesetting applications. This approach ensures the precise positioning of kashidas or the elongation of the cups. Furthermore, when typesetting applications introduce kashidas, they’re inserted into the text after the OpenType code is executed on the typeface. Consequently, the kashidas are fragmented and don’t align with the extending baseline in the typeface. As a result, baseline cuts and slant breaks will appear. Refer to the visual below:

The Latin Type Design Counterpart

While Pascal’s work was to navigate between the sources and the calligraphic heritage, Linda’s task was of a different nature: finding a true companion that is both expressive and pleasant to read. Like Zoghbi, Linda Hintz is a graduate of the TypeMedia master’s at The Royal Academy of Arts (KABK) in The Hague, The Netherlands, and worked at Monotype for some years before becoming an independent type designer. After collaborating on 29LT Okaso and 29LT Oskura, Pascal and Linda had established a way of working together. But while the previous tasks had been more experimental in nature, they had to now readjust to approach this project, as both were moving in more traditional fields more tightly bound to their own script’s heritage.

During her research phase, Linda looked at very diverse sources, ranging from re-known, sturdy yet comfy book typeface classics, to more expressive calligraphic, high-contrast display typefaces, and the rare finds between this scope. She was looking for a classical approach that could be combined with some experimentation and unusual solutions echoing the Arabic design. 29LT Idris Sharp led the design process to create a contemporary solution. The stems became lively, slightly flaring towards the top, the axis was tilted, and a fluidly changing contrast was incorporated. Some endings were straightened and became triangular, while others were simplified.

While 29LT Idris Sharp evolved, 29LT Idris Flat took a different route, introducing more straightness in both stems and stroke endings. It features solid terminals, slightly larger vertical heights, open counters, and overall lower contrast. The Arabic script has some slant and even a rising baseline, which is not quite transferable in the traditional realm of the Latin script. However, the design turned out to be optically a little slanted to the left, in both stems and rounds.

The different styles, 29LT Idris Sharp and 29LT Idris Flat, were drawn with the same width to ensure they could be easily interchangeable without causing reflow. The decision to make the Flat version seriffed and keep the weights uni-width was challenging in the bolder weights as there is more black space due to lower contrast. To compensate, the x- and Cap-height was raised slightly to create more space for the additional weight.

While the Arabic is both feature- and alternate-rich, Linda decided to keep the Latin character set to a minimum and built it out just enough to make it a usable tool. A set of small caps was added and few contextual alternates help to improve certain letter combinations without adding a vast numbers of ligatures.

Both scripts share large parts of the punctuation. The diamond shapes in the Arabic design created a lot of tension in the Latin when used as accents, especially in the bolder weights, so they were made slightly smaller and rotated to blend in more smoothly. A set of elliptical dots can be found in the stylistic sets. The accents in the Sharp are drawn with the same form language as the serifs, fluid and spiky where the form allowed.

PS: The Extension axis has no impact on the Latin character set because it was designed to address the justification issue in the Arabic script. 

“Hacia aquí, hacia allá, hacia casa” Exhibition and Poster

In May 2024, almost a year after Pascal starting his research and while the 29LT Idris type family was being finalised, Gráficas Granados (aka GraGra) invited Clara Sancho and Pascal to participate in a joint exhibition showcasing their typographic work and its relation to their personal lives. GraGra, a workshop dedicated to letterpress printing and also housing a small design gallery, decided to create a limited edition A1 format poster for the exhibition to honour the theme.

The poster was bilingual, featuring Arabic and Spanish, and the Arabic words were woodcut from 29LT Idris Sharp. The poster, titled “Hacia aquí, hacia allá, hacia casa من هون، لهونيك، للبيت” (“Here, there, home” in English), was the first use of 29LT Idris as woodcut letters and was press printed in a letterpress workshop, bringing the project full circle.

The poster was designed by Christian Granados, the founder of GraGra, Clara, and Pascal, and printed by Christian on a letterpress machine in Madrid in May 2024.

The technical information of the poster is as follows:

1. A1 format
2. Printed on 120gsm Special Grey paper from Fenner Paper
3. Printed in 2 colors on 4 layers

Only 45 limited copies were printed, available for purchase from GraGra. If you’re interested in learning more about the exhibition, visit GraGra’s website.

29LT Idris Specimens

Check out www.29LT.com to download the type specimen and get full information about each typeface.

29LT Idris Sharp Type Specimen

29LT Idris Flat Type Specimen