Possibility 2: If more liveliness and contrast are desired, loops can be lifted off the baseline while boxes and toothed letters are made the same height. It's also useful when we want to fill an area evenly with writing, as a more jagged arrangement leaves empty spaces that are difficult to fill. Such an arrangement has a static quality, and can be seen as severe, but it also defines neat rectangular spaces between two Alifs, which can receive ornamentation in the form of arabesque or more writing, perhaps in a smaller and contrasting style.
Letterspace definition plus#
Possibility 1: Constrain all the non-ascending letters to the same height, which must be whatever height best fits the least flexible letters (in this case, the boxed letters): Alif-height plus one level. We can, however, forgo the "neck" of these letters and keep them close to the baseline as the other looped letters need to be (و م), bringing their height down to 3 or more. Some of them (ق ف) involve three horizontals and two spaces, and therefore a height of 5 or more. Looped letters offer a certain flexibility, as they can stretch in height (but not horizontally). The next type of letter may help us decide. We can either bring down the bâ-height, or accept the difference in level. We can see already that if we keep our bâ-height as we set it earlier, it isn't on the same level as the boxes.
In the simple grid we're using, that's a height of 3 units, no more and no less, because in boxes that space can stretch horizontally but not vertically. When it comes to boxed letters (such as ص ط), we have to work with two horizontals and the space between them. We may revise it later-design is seldom a linear process, but a back-and-forth movement between variables until we're happy with the result. So for now, let us tentatively settle on a height of 4. There is no rule as to how high it can go, save that it must be lesser than the alif-height however, it needs to be harmonized with the heights of the other letters, and these depend on spacing as we'll see next. This is the height for toothed and notched letters (such as ب ج س ر).
Next we must set a secondary height, which we'll call the bâ-height. Note also that the Alif stands on the baseline ( satr al-kitâba), which we must always bear in mind. Its width is also the line width for all our vertical and horizontal lines (for the moment). Remember only Lâm and Tâ' can reach the same height. This is our " alif-height" (to derive a term from Western typography) and it's the maximum height for our script. Let's go with the last one, at the very right. In this mode, the Alif is a rectangle, and our first step is to define its proportions. ProportionsĪt this stage we're working with the bare structural skeleton of the letters, over a grid where each square is 1 unit.
Letterspace definition how to#
Today we're going to learn how to set the essential rules of our script, and it all begins with the Alif.
Letterspace definition free#
Because we're not using a formal script where all the decisions (heights, proportions, spacing) have already been made, we have to make these decisions ourselves, and we're free to keep them constant throughout our work or reinvent them every time (which I tend to do). This is not mere symbolism, but an indication of our starting point when creating a composition in Kufic, be it a word, a sentence, or the whole alphabet. While describing the Alif, I mentioned briefly that it was the module and archetype for the whole alphabet.
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