Just moving ahead with my blog (arabictype.wordpress.com). My latest five entries cover a wide range of issues ranging from the usefulness of the internet and the discoveries you can make with the resources available on it, to a classical coverage of an author of books on Arabic calligraphy.
Using the fanastic tool, Google, I was able to hunt down some very interesting fonts by who seems to be a Mauritanian type designer, Mohammed Hacen. He has a beautiful collection of fonts for download. Hacen seems to admire Mourad Boutros and there is an interesting contrast between the two which I hope to write on in a coming blog.
In the next blog entry I talk about handwriting. Arabic script is ideal for handwriting. It has a perfect balance between connected and separated letters which makes for easy, rapid, and beautiful handwriting. The entry also addresses the issue of teaching handwriting and criticizes teaching students classical calligraphy rather than aiming to equip students with an effective recording, expression, and thinking tool in the form of handwriting.
In a blog on Wissam Shawkat, I highlight the usefulness of vector-based drawing for producing large scale artwork. I tried to imitate Shawkat’s style in a sample Adobe Illustrator file which I made available for download. Users could play around with the letterforms in the file to produce works in Shawkat’s distinct style.
After that I do a blog about AutoCAD Arabization. Again. I can’t help it. It’s the businessman inside. I just can’t ignore that meter on my Wordpress blog that shows Google references of people searching for AutoCAD Arabization. I make my tool available for download and Opensource development in this blog. I love putting all these nice downloadables in the blogs I write.
Today I have uploaded a new blog on Naji Zaineldin Al-Musaref. Mr. Al-Musaref has prepared two very useful books on Arabic Calligraphy. The two books contain gems that I have been using time and again. The blog has two downloadable files on Thuluth and Farsi calligraphic styles.
All this on a blog on Arabic type and calligraphy in Arabic.