AlMohtaraf was commissioned by King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives to design the maquette and editorial trip of Darah, the foundation’s official magazine. To that end, we designed Darah, a display Arabic typeface influenced by early script found on Hijazi pottery. Eight years later, we decided to initiate a second generation of the same Darah typeface to make it more legible and visually coherent, with few ligature and contextual alternate updates. The size of the letters in relation to the aleph has grown. This improves legibility at smaller sizes. Excess ink was removed from the stroke ends. This gives the fount a crisper finish. The shape of all teeth was unified as to make the font more coherent. Not only were the teeth of the seen unified and elongated, but their upper slope also increased. This makes the seen's teeth stand out among other teeth (such as the beh and the medial yeh). The comma was eradicated and rebuilt altogether as to become more coherent with the rest of the fount, as one can notice with the sample line set below The upper two stems of the ain were made of length similar to that of its tail, and its upper stem was made crisper via ink reduction The yeh in both free-standing and final forms was enlarged, lowered, and freed of excess ink. The result is crisper and better-adhering to classical calligraphic proportions, and is therefore more legible.

Midan, designed by Kameel Hawa, was originally conceived as an exclusive Mohtaraf font, but is now sold on the Linotype Arabic type library . The font has three weights and is a very fluid and accessible font for long text readings. Its large counters and highly calligraphic strokes and characteristic angles make the typeface as idiosyncratic as can be. Midan won the TDC award for best in show in 2007 and the award in Linotype's First Arabic Type design competition in 2006. Midan reflects the fine work put into it at a time of dire need for new and reliable Arabic text fonts with impact. Midan flows smoothly and subtly, its proportions faithful to those of the Naskh, a classical Arabic script, with a friendly appearance that is sturdy and reliable. Not only was the Arabic typeface Midan amongst the winning entries of the Linotype competition, but it was also the judge’s choice, Herman Zapf, renowned international type designer and guest juror of the competition.

arabic fonts – Mohtaraf

Q: Saudi Professional League Arabic Typeface

Founded in 1959, the Saudi Professional League comprises of more than 12 premier level Saudi teams, and is officially known as the Saudi League Tournament for Premier Level Teams. It is one of the oldest in the Middle East, and has become one of the strongest in the Gulf, the Middle East, and Asia (according to a FIFA report). AlMohtaraf designed a custom Arabic type family based on the Latin Meran type family. The font is based onstrong calligraphic strokes that have geometric feel. Extensive applications and a identity guideline was developed for the SPL to ensure continuous proper usage of the identity.

Q: Al Jazirah newspaper gets a new pair of title fonts and more

After Shams and Al Yaum, Al Jazira joins the number of Saudi newspapers to have their typefaces designed by Al Mohtaraf. The significance of this stems from the fact that there are eight Saudi newspapers currently in print, which implies that in percentile form the ratio of newspapers having typefaces designed by Al Mohtaraf surpasses 30% of the total count of Saudi newspapers. ‘Al Jazira’ is one of Riyadh’s leading newspapers. Al Mohtaraf was commissioned to design and develop a typeface family for the titles of the newspaper that would conform to the standards of readability and legibility without necessitating the hideous vertical distortion that newspaper titles are usually subjected to in order to fit the largest possible title within a confined space. This meant that the typeface in question should also be unique, creative, and visually distinct from other newspaper titles in the market. The final product, a typeface family of two weights, Bold and Regular proved to be a success. Inspired by the Naskhi, it appealed to the Saudi eye, which was already familiar with the script in newspaper publications, its large counters allows a comfortable read in small sizes common to newspapers with Al Mohtaraf’s signature embedded in it.

Q: Always Arabic letters have wings

Always, from Procter & Gamble, is one of the biggest sellers of hygiene pads in the world. AlMohtaraf was contacted to design the Arabic custom typeface to be used on al their ABL and BTL projects. One of the major challenges we faced in the design of this typeface was finding a good match for the fluid curviness of the Latin counterpart, Always Radio. As a result, to draw some of the letterforms and pinpoint the connecting strokes between each of them. After numerous trials, experimentation and evaluations, we found a way to link the Arabic glyphs seamlessly together without compromising the fluidity of the connections. Another major decision we had to take is in the angle of the slant, which took an opposite direction to the Latin since Arabic by nature cannot be slanted to the right. The resulting font had a relatively high and variable tooth height, high, thick/thin stroke variation and fluidly pointed endings.

Q: SHB Arabic type family

Saudi Hollandi Bank, a subsidiary of the international ABN AMRO bank commissions AlMohtaraf to design a custom Arabic typeface to match their corporate Univers type family. We made sure that the typeface designed is not a mere adaptation of Univers, but rather a typeface in its own right, starting but not ending at the Latin reference. SHB in this sense shares Univers’s ascender and descender heights as well as x-height when possible, but has the freedom to break away from the latter whenever that restriction begins to jeopardize its authenticity as an Arabic type. Its forms and counter forms similarly stem from those of Univers and similarly remain faithful to their status as Arabic letters. The SHB family comprises of five fonts: SHB Text Light, SHB Text Normal, SHB Text Bold, SHB Titles Normal, and SHB Titles Bold. The title fonts that match Univers condensed bear a greater responsibility in striking an overall coherence within a bilingual page, and as such bear a greater formal similitude to Univers: their counters are slightly larger than those of the text fonts; they are slightly more geometric; and their dots are perfect squares just as are those of Univers ‘i’ letters. The text fonts on the other hand are catered to serve a smooth and easy reading, and they consequently offer a more human experience of the typeface as their forms are friendlier; the proportions of their counters are closer to those of traditional Arabic letters; and their dots have a 45° rotation, turning them into calligraphic diamonds.

Another Mohtaraf Arabic typeface wins the TDC
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Another Mohtaraf Arabic typeface wins the TDC

arabic fonts, jeddah

Another Mohtaraf Arabic typeface wins the TDC

newmohtaraf2019-11-17T22:37:45+03:00

Mohtaraf font by Kameel Hawa wins the TDC Certificate of Typographic Excellence.

Saudi Professional League Arabic Typeface
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Saudi Professional League Arabic Typeface

arabic fonts, Design

Saudi Professional League Arabic Typeface

newmohtaraf2019-11-17T22:38:39+03:00

Design for custom Arabic typefaces to match Latin Meran typeface for the Saudi Football League

Darah gets a revamp
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Darah gets a revamp

arabic fonts, Design

Darah gets a revamp

newmohtaraf2019-11-17T22:38:39+03:00

Al Darah typeface takes on a re-vamp after eight years of its debut in a magazine

Al Jazirah newspaper gets a new pair of title fonts and more
Gallery
Al Jazirah newspaper gets a new pair of title fonts and more

arabic fonts, Design

Al Jazirah newspaper gets a new pair of title fonts and more

newmohtaraf2019-11-17T22:39:01+03:00

After Chams and AlYaum, AlJazira joins the rest of Saudi newspapers to have their typefaces designed

Always Arabic letters have wings
Gallery
Always Arabic letters have wings

arabic fonts, Design

Always Arabic letters have wings

newmohtaraf2019-11-17T22:39:01+03:00

AlMohtaraf designs the Always Arabic custom typeface with great fluidity!

Midan
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Midan

arabic fonts, Design

Midan

newmohtaraf2019-11-17T22:39:01+03:00

Midan flows smoothly and subtly, its proportions are faithful to the Naskh, classical arabic script

SHB Arabic type family
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SHB Arabic type family

arabic fonts, Design

SHB Arabic type family

newmohtaraf2019-11-17T22:39:19+03:00

Saudi Hollandi Bankcommissions AlMohtaraf to design a custom Arabic type to match Univer type family

Al Mohtaraf is a trend-setting design house and an acknowledged leader in its field. From its inception, it had a dream, namely: To revolutionize and have a lasting impact on the Arabic design scene. We now can proudly claim to have succeeded in realizing this dream, on top of a long list of remarkable achievements.

As a design house, Al Mohtaraf is unique in its capability to marry in the work it creates advanced contemporary design skills, with rich artistic and cultural orientation, together with a thorough knowledge and comprehension of the country’s national heritage and aspirations.

Be it in brand development, corporate publishing, or books and magazines, AlMohtaraf works reflect the coming together of capabilities that are not usually available under one roof, namely an up-to-date graphic design proficiency, a good command of language, and an array of arts such as: Calligraphy, illustration, and photography.

With several international awards in Arabic type design, AlMohtaraf has today an interesting spectrum of in-house typefaces at its disposal. Around 20 institutes use AlMohtaraf specially developed fonts, which include newspapers, banks and even fast food chains and consumer goods. it’s expertise in this domain cover fonts for digital screens, and cross matching with latin typefaces.