KHAT ARAB: SEJARAH RINGKAS 2

2. BRIEF ASPECTS OF ARABIC TYPE.
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2.1 The Arabic Alphabet consists of 29 consonants and 11 vocalization marks in the shape of accents.

The structure of the alphabet has only 19 basic shapes.

However, since the letters change their shape according to their position in the word—initial, medial, final, or isolated—then the set of glyphs will add up to 106: 23 letters have four alternative shapes, and 7 letters have two alternative shapes.

If we add the two indispensable ligatures of Lam-Alef, then the number will be 108.

Finally, since the Arabic alphabet is also used in some non-Arab languages, more alterations to the letter were introduced to represent all the additional non-Arabic phonetics that brings the number of glyphs up to 130.

Moreover, the number of glyphs can further increase if we also count all kinds of combinations within the letters if the typeface needs to fully mimic the calligraphic handwritten Arabic script.

So according to each typeface, the number of glyphs can start with 130 and end in the hundreds.

2.2 The following image shows the four developing layers of the Arabic script

The first line shows only the basic shapes of the letters.

The second line illustrates the added diacritic dots on some letters that require it.

The third line adds the vocalization marks for better pronunciation.

The final line shows a decorated sentence where some decorative elements were added to the script to make it more elegant or holy.

Usually, in everyday text, only the diacritic dots and some vocalization marks will be added to the script.

The decorative elements will only be added to display words or sentences.

The four typographic elements of the Arabic script are:

1. Basic letterforms;

2. Diacritic Dots;

3. Vocalization marks;

4. Decorative elements, without mentioning the numerals, punctuation marks, and symbols.