Arabic Myriad Pro Typeface

Mahmoud Alkhawajeh 000880187 Typography Studio I GRDS-709

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Introduction

I have always been interested in Latin typography, even though I don’t have too much information about it. This is due to the fact that I used to use Arabic type. I know that Latin typography is more than just lettering and the arrangement of the text on papers.

In my typography studio class, I had the chance to learn more about typography and letter form anatomy and the rules of typography. As a result, I applied what I had learned in my typography class through the execution of my various projects: the first being my Art of War project, the second being my type face designer presentation, the third being my type face anatomy group discussion, and the latest being my type face design project.

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Typography and Type Features

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Type features We started this quarter by learning about type features and rules. I learned about glyph anatomy and the features of letters. We talked about type contrasts in reference to thickness and thinness. We also talked about the stress for the letters and what it means to have a stress, and when and where there is contrasts.

Now I know the parts of letters and terms such as the tail, hook and counter.

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The arrangement of type includes the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), the adjustment of the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and the adjustment of the space between pairs of letters (kerning).

I think I will never be able to look at type the same way again. As a graphic designer, I believe that a designer should be able to deal with type and know what kind of type his design needs.

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Typeface designer Carol Twombly

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Carol Twombly The typeface designer presentation was very useful for me. My presentation was about Carol Twombly. She was born in 1959.

Twombly studied architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and then changed her major to graphic design, because she thought that graphic design would be a more useful major to study. Carol said,

"I discovered that communicating through graphics - by placing black shapes on a white page - offered a welcome balance between freedom and structure."

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At the time she was student, one of her professors at school, Chuck Bigelow, gave her a chance to enter the type design world. While she was working in that studio with her professor, she started to understand the difficulties of designing type.

Beside that, she gained great experience in the studio. She would draw the letters and ink them in. After she finished her bachelor’s degree from RISD in graphic design, she found a job in Boston in one of the graphic design studios. Carol received an invitation from Bigelow to study a program in digital typography at Stanford University.

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After two years, Carol received her master’s degree, and she was one of only five people to graduate in the digital typography program.

For the next four years Carol continued to work for the Bigelow studio. Around the same time, she entered her first type design in an international competition, and she won her first prize in the Latin text category, and published her type under the name Mirara. After that prize, Carol got the chance to work for Adobe System in 1988 as a full time typographer.

She worked for Adobe for nine years, and during this time she designed very famous fonts such as Trajan, Myriad, Charlemagne, Lithos, and Adobe Caslon; almost all of which are inspired by old and classic letterform. In 1994, she received another award from the Association Typographique Internationale for outstanding contributions to type design. She was the first women and second American to receive this award given to a prestigious honor under the age of 35. Even though type design became her career, Caslon retired in 1999, to do other crafts, which include basket weaving, drawing, painting, and jewelry making.

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Myriad Pro The typeface

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The typeface I chose to study and to be the inspiration for my final project is Myriad Pro. Myriad Pro was designed by Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach in 1992. Myriad was originally issued in 1991 as Myriad MM, a multiple master type family that worked with an intelligent software "engine" to allow the user to generate variations in width and weight.

Myriad Pro has become famous for use both in text and Display. In 2000 it was reissued as Myriad Pro, an OpenType font family. Myriad is a humanist sans serif typeface, which means that the forms are based on classic Roman typefaces without the serifs. Myriad has also been expanded to include the Greek and Cyrillic glyphs, and added oldstyle figures as well as support for Latin based Languages.

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Myriad is easily recognizable amongst the other sans-serif fonts due to its special "y" tail and its slanting "e" cut, as well as its rounded curves. Also, it has subtle geometric shaping and nice contrast that are balanced by varying letter widths and open counter shapes. Myriad is a readable and friendly typeface, and works well for both text and display typography. A headline font and the playful "sketch" and "tilt" versions add versatility.

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Myriad has most famously been used by the Apple Company. Since the launch of the eMac in 2002, Myriad has replaced Apple Garamond as Apple Inc.'s corporate font. It is now used in all of Apple's marketing and on its products. It is also a registered trademark of Adobe Systems. Myriad is used by many famous companies around the world as a primary and secondary corporate font.

14 Myriad Pro

Regular

Latin capitals

Figures, currency & related forms

Alphabetic

Lining tabular

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR ST UVW XY Z & Æ Ł Ø Œ Þ Ð Á  ÄÀÅÃÇÉÊËÈÍÎÏÌİÑÓÔÖÒÕ Š Ú Û Ü ÙÝŸ Ž Ă Ā Ą Ǻ Ć Č Ď Đ Ě Ė Ē Ę Ğ Ģ G̃ Ī Į Ķ Ĺ Ľ Ļ M̂ Ń Ň N̂ Ņ Ő Ō Ŕ Ř Ŗ Ś Ş ȘŤŢ Ű Ū Ų Ů Ź Ż Ǽ Ĉ Ċ Ĕ Ŋ Ĝ Ġ Ħ Ĥ Ĭ IJ Ĩ Ĵ Ŀ Ŏ Ǿ ŜŦ Ŭ ŨẂŴ ẄẀ ŶỲȲ Ȝ Ạ Ả Ấ Ầ Ẩ Ẫ Ậ Ắ Ằ Ẳ Ẵ ẶẸẺẼẾỀỂỄỆỈỊƠỌỎỐỒỔỖỘ Ớ Ờ Ở Ỡ Ợ Ư Ụ Ủ Ứ Ừ Ử Ữ ỰỴỶỸ

00123456789$¢£¥ƒ¤€#

Latin lowercase

0123456789,.¢$-()

Alphabetic

Lining proportional

00123456789%‰ Oldstyle tabular

0123456789$¢£¥ƒ€# Oldstyle proportional

0123456789% Superscript

abcdefghijklmnopqrstu vwxyzæıłøœßþðáâäàåãç éêëèíîïìñóôöòõšúûüùýÿ žăāąǻćčďđěėēęğģīįķĺľļń ňņőōŕřŗśşșťţűūųůźżǽĉċ ĕ ŋ ĝ ġ g̃ ħ ĥ ĭ ij ĩ ĵ ŀ m̂ ʼn n̂ ŏ ǿ ŝ ŧ ŭ ũ ẃŵẅẁŷỳȳȝĸạảấầẩẫậắằẳ ẵặẹẻẽếềểễệỉịơọỏốồổỗộ ớờởỡợưụủứừửữựỵỷỹ

Scientific inferior

Latin ligatures

^~·+±<=>|¦×÷−∂ µπ∆∏∑ Ω√∞∫≈≠≤≥◊¬

Lowercase ligatures

0123456789,.¢$-() Numerator

0123456789,.¢$-() Fractions

¼½¾⁄ Mathematical operators

15 Myriad Pro

Regular

Punctuation and marks

Greek lowercase

Dashes

Alphabetic

Quotes

αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυ φχψωάέήίϊόύϋώΐΰς

_—−' " “ « ‹ › »‚„ ” ’‘ Points

, . : ; …? ¿ ! ¡ · Greek points

·; Delimiters and conjoiners

Floating accents

΅ ̏ ΄ ῭ ΅ Cyrillic capitals Alphabetic

АБВГҐДЕЖЗИЙКЛМНОПР СТУФХЦЧШЩЪЫЬЭЮЯЁЂ ЃЄЅІЇЈЉЊЋЌЎЏ

()[]{}/\ Miscellaneous

*•§†‡¶©®™@

Floating accents

ˆ˘

Uppercase variants

Cyrillic lowercase

()[]{}¡¿«»‹›-–—·@

Alphabetic

Alphabetic

абвгґдежзийклмнопрст уфхцчшщъыьэюяёђѓєѕії јљњћќўџ

ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ ΩΆ Έ Ή Ί Ϊ Ό Ύ Ϋ Ώ

Floating accents

Greek capitals

ˆ˘ Floating accents

̏ ῭ ΅

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17 Myriad Pro Arabic Version

My final project is to design my own typeface. To be consistent with my plan and the inspiration of Carol Twombly and the design of Myriad Pro, I have created Myriad Pro Arabic Version.

The idea for my project is to create and develop a new modern Arabic typeface based on Myriad pro. This new typeface will respond to the market needs, and will work in harmony with the Latin typography. As a result, this font will be able to solve many of the visual issues between the Arabic and the Latin fonts.

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My design brief is very clear: first design a typeface that would be the Arabic version of Myriad Pro; second, I would not change the Arabic scriptâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aesthetics; third, I would make sure that the Latin and Arabic type can be used at the same point size; and finally I would make the Arabic version show the Myriad Pro concept. My goal is to create an Arabic version of the Myriad Pro font that matches in harmony with the original Myriad Pro. The font will be a resource for bilingual communication, while keeping the spirit of the Arabic script, with a stress on a modern typographic look.

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Myriad Pro Arabic Version As an Arabic graphic designer, I am focusing on creating a modern Arabic type. My personal interest in this project was based on my experience in advertising and graphic design, and the difficulties in matching Arabic and Latin fonts. On the other hand, my admiration for Myriad Pro guides me to think about this project. I will use the same features from Myriad Pro to create an adequate Arabic version.

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Myriad Pro Arabic Version Analysis and Sketches I started my project with an analysis of Myriad Pro. The first step was to draw the skeleton of Myriad Pro Regular. Drawing the skeleton was very interesting, because Its forced me understand the font more than before.

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After drawing the skeleton, I started designing my own font based on the original skeleton for Myriad Pro. At that time, I had not yet decided that I was going to do an Arabic font, so I was focusing on my font as a Latin font. However, the class discussions and the classmateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sketches were very useful experiences for me in the typographic field.

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Some sketches that I made in class to design a new font based on the Myriad Pro skeleton.

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After all the sketches I made of the Latin based Myriad Pro skeleton, I came up with new idea. I decided that I would make Myriad Pro Arabic Version. With help from the professor, I started my project by reading a book called Arabic typography. This book gave me a general understanding about Arabic typography. After that, I started to realize my project path.

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Myriad is a humanist typeface, so I have to keep the same feeling for the letters. Also, I have to keep in mind the subtle geometric shapes and the contrast of the letters.

I also have to keep the same balance of the letter widths and open counter shapes.

In fact, it’s not an easy job, because the Arabic type’s contrast is horizontal, while the Latin type’s contrast is vertical. So I have to work around that to have the same feeling for Myriad Pro. I am excited for my project because I will be able to combine my old knowledge of typography with my new knowledge.

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Challenge The challenge of my project is that I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have that much of knowledge about Arabic typography. Also, Arabic type is very complicated. This is because: a.) Arabic typography has 6 originals styles, and all fonts are based on those 6 styles. b.) The Arabic alphabet has 29 letters, but each letter has three different forms or shapes, depending on the placement of the letter. That means I have to make almost 57-letter shapes. Also, another challenge that I faced was that the contrast of Arabic typography is vertical, while the contrast of Latin typography is horizontal.

I had to figure out how to solve this problem.

The Arabic 6 styles.

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The letters form in the initial, middle and the end.

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the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog After all the processes and challenges, I finally made my Myriad Pro Arabic Version. I kept the same feeling for the letters. Also, I made the same subtle geometric shapes and the contrast in the letters. I tried to keep the same balance of the letter widths and open counter shapes. Also, I made the Arabic version with same contrast as Myriad pro.

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Myriad Pro Arabic Version

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Basically my font was 100% based on Myriad Pro letters. I made the same curves, and the same contours. Here, I show how I made my letters from the Latin letters. I put a blue circle on the areas that I made the same. In this way, I kept the same feeling of Myriad Pro. In the next few pages, I show how Myriad Pro Arabic Version would look in various different scenarios.

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Myriad Pro Arabic Version

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the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

44 Myriad Pro Arabic Version

Usages

apple

Linked in

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Designed by: Mahmoud Alkhawajeh

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Work Cited Joel Friedlander. Carol Twombly, An Extraordinary Type Designer. The Book Designer.

2010.Web. 21 Feb.2011. http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/03/carol-twombly-anextraordinary-type-designer/ Adobe Systems Incorporated. Carol Twombly, Adobe Systems Incorporated. 07-14-2009.

Web. 21 Feb.2011. http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?event=displayDesignerInfo&co de=TWOM&store=OLS-US. Carol Twombly, Identifont. .Web. 21 Feb.2011. http://www.identifont.com/show?122 Font Free. Myriad Font by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twomb. May 26, 2009. Web. 21 Feb.2011. http://freefonty.com/download-myriad-font-free/ Adobe Systems. Myriad Pro Release Notes. 2000/07/07.Web. 21 Feb.2011. http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/pdfs/readmes/MyriadProReadme.pdf Myriad. Bitstream, Inc. 1999-2011. Web. 21 Feb.2011. http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/myriad/ Myriad (typeface). Wikipedia. 21 February 2011.Web. 21 Feb.2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad_%28typeface%29