Thursday 7 March 2019

Progress? On the evolution of Arabic type

Next week, the Justin Howes Memorial Lecture is being delivered by Titus Nemeth at the St Bride Foundation.

The history of typography is also a history of technologies. As the means of multiplying texts evolved through time, different tools left distinct marks on letterforms. This dynamic accelerated from the late nineteenth century, as technological developments began to radically change the making and setting of type. At increasingly shorter intervals new machines and techniques shaped how text was represented and multiplied. Arabic typography is no exception to this, but its history is shorter.

Only when in the West, print was industrialised began Muslim printers to use letterpress printing on a large scale. In consequence, the mechanisation of Arabic typography occurred at an earlier evolutionary stage, lending machinery a key role in its development.
In this talk Titus, discusses this history from the perspective of progress: He will present key moments and contributions, consider drivers and motivations, and query if and how new technologies really did result in advances for Arabic typography.
Titus Nemeth is a type-designer and typographer with a special interest in the Arabic script. An alumnus of the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at Reading, Titus has pursued an independent career for over ten years. He has taught in France (ESAD Amiens), Morocco (ESAV Marrakesh), Qatar (VCUQ), and the UK (Reading). His doctoral research formed the foundation for Arabic Type-Making in the Machine Age, recently published with Brill Publishers.
The talk is next Thursday, 14 March 2019 from 7–9pm at the St Bride Foundation. Tickets are a bargain at £8–12.50 - this is a fascinating subject, why not go and stimulate the grey matter!
You can book tickets HERE

https://www.sbf.org.uk/whats-on/view/the-justin-howes-memorial-lecture-progress-on-the-evolution-of-arabic-type/
Posted by Justin Hobson 07.03.2019

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