Arabic & Persian Layout Requirements

This document describes requirements for the layout and presentation of text in languages that use the Arabic script when they are used by Web standards and technologies, such as HTML, CSS, Mobile Web, Digital Publications, and Unicode.

Glyph shaping & positioning

Fonts & font styles

Traditionally, the Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters, though for practical purposes it makes sense to include the hamzah, which increases the number of letters to 29. Numerous letters share the same skeleton and are only distinguished by diacritic signs. Since letters change according to their position in the word, Arabic fonts typically contain hundreds of glyphs. Depending on the design of the font, the inclusion of ligatures, stylistic alternates, contextually sensitive shapes, language localisation, punctuation, etc. can further expand the glyphset. Some contemporary fonts include many hundreds, in some cases even thousands of glyphs.

Early typefaces, some still in use today, incorporated design features based on a variety of simplifications. For example, one of the first approaches used a "typewriter" style, where the same glyph is used for different positions in a word. This is the case for initial and medial shapes for most letters. It is generally the browser default font for the Arabic script. A more unifying approach is the use of a single and detached glyphs for each letter without joining. Other approaches were used, producing visual results of more or less practicality.

Nowadays, there is a large choice of fonts, and one can choose the font that best suits one's typographical desire. However, one may also wish to take into account some non-typographical considerations like the following:

Accessibility (readability and visibility).
Devices with a small screen (for example, larger loop and teeth height, small descenders etc.), although fonts actually appear better on smartphones
Font style for titles and banners and alike (small number of words), may differ from the style for content text (long text).
Shapes and proportions (the size issue) in mixed texts.
Some fonts might give other opportunities for line justification than just the use of word spacing (See [[[#h_ligatures]]]).
etc.

The Islamic manuscript tradition

Origins

The Arabic script belongs to the class of Semitic writing systems. It evolved from the Nabataean script, and attained its distinctive form by the 4th century CE. It is closely related to the Syriac and the Hebrew script. The earliest attested document written in the Arabic alphabet in its classical form stems from the Islamic era, it is dated to 643 CE.

According to Islamic belief, the prophet Muhammad received his revelations in the Arabic language. As a consequence, Arabic attained religious connotations. Muhammad's revelations were first compiled and standardised in writing after his death in 632 CE under the caliphs Abu Bakr and 'Uthman. The resulting holy book, the Qur’ān, became a central vehicle of the faith. The Arabic script thus spread with Islamic civilization beyond its origins, and started to be used to write other languages. Because of the wide reach of Islam, numerous, widely differing languages were and are written with the Arabic script. As a result, different orthographies, including variant forms of Arabic letters were conceived. In parallel to these linguistic developments, a plethora of regional styles emerged, making the Islamic manuscript tradition one of the richest in the world.

Writing Styles

Islamic manuscript practice evolved with Islamic art and civilization. Extant evidence of decorative use of the Arabic script can be found as early as the 7th century CE, in a mosaic band in the Dome of the Rock. Beyond frequent monumental inscriptions in architecture, calligraphy became one of the foremost Islamic art forms. Manuscript practice evolved into a central element of Islamic civilization through the copying of books, and the refinement of calligraphy into a form of fine art. The commissioning and writing of the Qur’ān was seen as an expression of religious devotion and provided the context for scribes and calligraphers to excel in their craft. Further to its use as a textual medium, Arabic calligraphy and lettering crafts developed a rich palette of decorative forms and uses.

A range of styles evolved over time in different regions and for different purposes. These include monumental writing styles used in decorative and representational settings, styles used for the exclusive use of rulers, common hands in different areas, and styles dedicated for specialist purposes such as miniature writing. Many of these styles fell out of use, some evolved further, and some retained a high degree of consistency over time.

There is evidence that both monumental and current hands existed and evolved from the early Islamic era onwards. Various exponents of the monumental styles are often loosely referred to as Kūfī, making it a term that lacks precision and clarity. It describes a group of styles that are marked by an angularity and stark graphic characteristics that are absent from the round scripts that took preeminence from the late 10th, early 11th century CE.

The ‘Abbassīd calligrapher Ibn Muqlah (885/886–940 CE) is recognised for his contribution to the evolution of the round scripts. He articulated a system of proportional relations of Arabic letterforms, which became known as 'The Proportioned Script' (al-khatt al-mansūb), although its precise meaning remains open to interpretation. His work was continued by Ibn al-Bawwāb (d. 1022 CE), and later by Yāqūt al-Musta‘ṣimī (d. 1298 CE), who is credited with refining and canonising six writing styles into their definitive forms. The so-called 'Six Pens' (al-aqlām as-sitta) became the expression of an early high point of Islamic calligraphy. They are grouped in sister scripts of two, in which one is a large, the other a small hand, which share some characteristics. They are (large/small) Thuluth and Naskh, Muhaqqaq and Reyhān, and Tawqi‘ and Riqa‘, and they superceded all preceding styles.

Other cultural centres of Islamic civilization emerged after the fall of the ‘Abbassīds, and developed their distinct calligraphic styles. Of note is the Persian domain, where the styles Ta‘līq and Nasta‘līq emerged and attained their classical form in the 14th century CE. The Ottoman school began with Sheikh Hamdullah in the late 15th century CE, and built on the Arabic and Persian predecessors. It refined existing styles and invented new hands, to achieve a new high point in the arts of Islamic penmanship.

Today, only a handful of styles are still widely in use, and known. The most prominent style is Naskh, which has become the default form of Arabic in most contexts, notably as a model for typography. However, there is strong regional variance. In Iran and Pakistan Nasta‘līq remains the preferred style for Persian and Urdu respectively, and in the Mashriq Ruq‘ah (not to be confused with Riqa‘) retains a prominent role in casual writing, as well as in lettering. In calligraphic art, other styles are still practised, where notably Thuluth is preeminent.

Kūfī (كوفي): Kūfī ‘Abbassīd style example [Source].

Kūfī is best understood as an umbrella term containing numerous variants, including widely diverging styles such as ornamental Kūfī, square Kūfī, and the so-called Eastern Kūfī, making the term highly ambiguous. The earliest forms of Kūfī are attested from the 7th century CE, making it one of the oldest Arabic writing styles. The Kūfī style that gained prominence in the production of Qur’ān manuscripts from the 7th century CE, also known as ‘Abbassīd style, is characterized by angular forms, with pronounced emphasis of horizontal strokes, very small or closed counter shapes, and uniformity of spacing.
Maghribī (مغربي): Maghribī example [Source].

Like Kūfī, the denomination Maghribī (western) is a generic name that encompasses numerous variants. This class of styles probably evolved from the ‘Abbassīd style when Islamic conquests advanced through North Africa and into the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century CE. It maintained some structural characteristics from the ‘Abbassīd style and evolved further into a distinct regional hand. Used for writing the Qur’ān as well as other scientific, legal and religious manuscripts. Rabat, a mabsut version of it, is widely used in some official printings in Morocco.
Thuluth (ثلث): Thuluth example [Source].

Thuluth is one of the first rounded styles and can be traced back to the late 10th century. Its name probably refers to the width of the pen, which was a third of the pen used for the ancient Ṭūmār style. Canonised as one of the six pens, over time Thuluth acquired preeminence in the Islamic calligraphic arts. It was mainly used for large, decorative applications such as titles, chapters headers, or monumental inscriptions.
Naskh (نسخ): Naskh example [Source].

Naskh means ‘copying’, and it is the bookhand par excellence of the Arabic manuscript tradition. It emerged at the end of the 10th century, and developed into distinct regional schools from the 13th century. Over time Naskh became the predominant writing style for continuous text and superseded most earlier styles. When typography was adopted in the Arabic script world, Naskh formed the basis for most types intended for continuous reading.
Taʻlīq (تعليق): Taʻlīq example [Source].

Taʻlīq (hanging) is a Persian chancery style. It probably emerged from the older tawqī‘ and its definitive form was established by the 13th century. As the name indicates, and owing to the pronounced inclination, it gives the impression of being suspended from above.
Nastaʻlīq (نستعلیق): Nastaʻlīq example [Source].

The name nastaʻlīq combines naskh and taʻlīq, which may indicate the two influences of this style. Nastaʻlīq became the archetypal writing style of the Persianate world, and attained its definitive form by the late 14th century, although earlier forms are attested. Like taʻlīq it gives a ‘hanging’ impression, and is marked by smooth, flowing curves. Although not widely used for continuous text, nastaʻlīq also found some use for short texts in Arabic.
Dīwānī (ديواني): Dīwānī example [Source].

Dīwānī was used at the Ottoman court (Dīwān) for official documents, making it a typical chancery script. It developed from the Persian taʻlīq and found use from the late 15th century. Its considerable complexity was intended to preclude forgeries of official documents.
Ruqʻah (رقعة‎): Ruqʻa example [Source].

The Ruq’ah style evolved from Dīwānī in the 18th century as a fast chancery hand in the Ottoman Empire. It should not be confused with the older Riqā‘ that is wholly different. Ruq’ah is still commonly used in the region of the fertile crescent as the preferred hand for everyday use. Its compact proportions give it a dark appearance, and its origins as a small, fast hand lend the shapes a graphic simplicity when enlarged, a feature that makes it popular in contemporary lettering.

Context-based shaping & positioning

Arabic script has some characteristics that are challenging for typographers and font designers. The examples below show some characteristics that require careful consideration. How, even in the simpler naskh style, can typography, which came late to the Arabic world, follow the tradition of the many authors and artists who manually shaped the Arabic writing over decades.

Multi-level baselines

Letters may join through a finely inclined line.

Or they may appear on two, square-ended lines.

two level baselin — Dual-level baseline.

Multilevel baselines don't occur in all fonts. The above examples use the Arabic Typesetting font. Compare those examples to more typical fonts:

Multi-context joining

Rendering of letters depends not only on their place in the word (initial, medial, final) but also on their neighboring letters, i.e. the letter they join with. Each letter has a different appearance in each combination.

Different initial shape of noon — Initial letter noon, showing many different forms.

Fonts don't always comply with or respect this kind of tuning. To do so, fonts need many glyphs in order to adapt to each context. In more modern typefaces some of these connections are implemented by ligatures, but ligatures can't capture or cover all joining behavior.

In the two left most words, the initial noon differs in that one raises a kind of stroke. This property of raising a stroke is common for a number of letters (beh, teh, noon, theh) which are taller than their connected letters in order to be distinguished in some contexts, such as Beh with stroke before seen vs. Beh without stroke after seen , or to resolve ambiguity. See also [[[#h_teeth_letters]]].

Words as groups of letters

A word shape is composed of not (only) a set of "horizontally" connected letters, but groups of letters (syntagmes).

[[[#fig_word_groups_1]]] shows syntagmes in two words in a naskh font with many glyph variants.

Aleph and two groups of letters to form a word — Groups of letters are colored blue or red.

two other group of letters — Groups of letters are colored blue or red.

Compare that with the same words in more plain font:

same word in more normal font — Can't really say letter groups. Rather a "horizontal sequence of letters of almost same width".

same word in default font — Can't really say letter groups. Rather a "horizontal sequence of letters of almost same width".

Group combinations cannot be covered by general or usual ligatures.

Vertical joining

Groups of letters may also join vertically (top down) instead of right to left. Not all fonts permit this.

horizontal joing — Almost vertical joining (left), vs. horizontal joins (right).

Once again, some fonts try standard ligatures, but this is not ligature. This is rather (good) writing practice/style.

One should note that all these features have not only an aesthetic side, but also play a role in justification. Choosing a joining style to suit the desired line width is done at the discretion of authors for hand-written text. Applications should provide general rules to emulate these options, but achieving such justification requires sophisticated algorithms.

The so-called teeth letters.

Where successive letters have a uniform medial shape, they can be rendered in a way that resembles teeth.

Individual letter shapes may vary according to the context. It's not always the same letters (in red) which raise the stroke in [[[#fig_teeth_letters]]].

Ligatures

Almost all the writing styles of the Arabic script use a special shape when the letters lam and alef are joined. Most Arabic fonts include mandatory ligatures for this combination. Ignoring this ligature, as shown in [[[#fig_laam_alef_ligature]]], leads to incorrectly rendered text.

Correct and wrong ways of rendering letter lam followed by letter alef — Correct and incorrect ways of rendering letter lam followed by letter alef

This shape is not limited to the combination لا [U+0644 ARABIC LETTER LAM + U+0627 ARABIC LETTER ALEF]. Variations of the letter alef such as آ [U+0622 ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH MADDA ABOVE] and أ [U+0623 ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA ABOVE] when combined with the letter lam follow the same rules. Combination with diacritics does not affect these ligatures. Each of these ligatures also provides a special shape for joining on its right side (to the preceding letter).

Diacritics

More than one diacritic can occur after a single base character and all of them should be visually attached to the same character. Font files usually define special shapes or positioning for combination of diacritics. This extra information should be applied in rendering texts.

[[[#fig_combining_diacritics]]] shows an example, where, according to this font’s specification, combining U+0651 ARABIC SHADDA and U+0650 ARABIC KASRA changes their positions. Various font files may require different transformations.

Diacritics could be combined in Arabic script.

Positioning diacritics relative to base characters

In Arabic script text it is unusual to use diacritics for vowel information and for consonant lengthening. If they are used, however, there are different approaches to their placement relative to the base characters they modify. Some fonts display short vowel diacritics at the same height, while others vary the height according to the base character.

Another potential difference arises when a short i vowel diacritic is used with a shadda. In some cases the vowel diacritic remains below the base letter, whereas in other cases the vowel diacritic appears above the base letter, but under the shadda (so that it can be distinguished from the short a vowel diacritic, which appears above the shadda).

Cursive text

Arabic script is a cursive writing system; i.e, letters can join to their neighboring letters. Besides the core behavior of the script, there are some details on how content is encoded in Unicode, and some rules around joining behavior when rendering special cases.

Joining Forms

Every Arabic letter has one, two, or four different joining forms, which allow the letter to join to its neighbors, if applicable. These four forms are:

Isolated form, used when the letter does not join to any of the surrounding letters;
Initial form, used when the letter is joining only to its next (left-hand side) letter;
Medial form, used when the letter is joining on both sides, and
Final form, used when the letter is joined only to its previous (right-hand side) letter.

[[[#fig_letter_meem_shapes]]] shows samples of all four joining forms for U+0645 ARABIC LETTER MEEM (م).

Isolated joining form of U+0645 ARABIC LETTER MEEM. — Four different letter forms for joining to surrounding letters.

Final joining form of U+0645 ARABIC LETTER MEEM. — Four different letter forms for joining to surrounding letters.

We define the following two groups of joining forms:

Join-to-left forms: either Initial form or Medial form of a letter, which joins to the left-hand side (next) letter. Other forms are called non-join-to-left.
Join-to-right forms: either Medial form or Final form of a letter, which joins to the right-hand side (previous) letter. Other forms are called non-join-to-right.

Joining Categories

There are different categories of letters based on their joining behavior:

Dual-joining letters: can join from both sides, like the letter in , and has all the four shapes mentioned above.
Right-joining letters: can only join to their previous (right-hand side) letter, and therefore, only have isolated and final shapes. shows samples of both forms for U+0631 ARABIC LETTER REH (ر).
Non-joining letters: cannot join to any surrounding letter, and therefore can only take the isolated form. shows a sample of U+0621 ARABIC LETTER HAMZAH (ء) in its only possible form.

Isolated joining form of U+0631 ARABIC LETTER REH. — Right-joining letters only have two forms of final and isolated.

Final joining form of U+0631 ARABIC LETTER REH. — Right-joining letters only have two forms of final and isolated.

Most of Arabic letters are either dual-joining or right-joining.

One joining form of U+0621 ARABIC LETTER HAMZAH. — Non-Joining letters only have one form: isolated.

Joining Rules

There are core rules on how letters join to each other in the Arabic script, which stay valid regardless of the medium (hand-writing, typewriter, movable-type, digital, etc):

Letters of each word join together whenever possible, implicitly.
In some languages, like Persian and Urdu, there are words—mostly, but not limited to, compound words—that require explicit breaks in the joining of letters, although joining would otherwise be possible.
In certain cases, a letter can be in a join-to-left form without actually connecting to anything on the left, whether there’s any letter or not. This is often seen in list counters, abbreviations, and other cases where letters do not have a word context, or are taken out of their original word context.
In rare cases of words splitting where letters are joined, first letter of the second half will be in a join-to-right form without any previous letter. This behavior is limited to special cases like blanking specific letters of a word, line breaks in a paragraph, and word breaks across poetry verses. No standalone word can have any letters in join-to-right form without joining on the right-hand side.

[[[#fig_joining_process]]] demonstrates how letters join (per Joining Rule 1) to form a word.

Letter BEH and MEEM join to form a word. — Letters join by taking their relevant form.

Joining Control

Arabic letters are represented in their intended joining forms in hand-writing, typewriters, and old (deprecated) digital encodings of the script. In Unicode, letters are encoded semantically—meaning without any information about their joining form—and therefore there’s need for a mechanism for controlling of the joining behavior of the letters.

In Unicode, by default, neighbor Arabic letters join together if and only if both letters are able to join towards the other.

Disjoining Enforcement

As noted in Joining Rule 2, sometimes two Arabic letters sit next to each other (in one word) which would normally join together, but should not. In Unicode, for such a case, a special character should be used to enforce disjoining of these letters. This character is called U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER, or ZWNJ for short.

ZWNJ example. — Example of using ZWNJ for disjoining enforcement.

Joining Enforcement

Similarly, as noted in Joining Rule 4, sometimes an Arabic letter needs to take a joining form when it would not happen normally. For example, some abbreviation methods use Initial Form of letters, when possible, for every letter in the abbreviation. Again, in Unicode, a special character should be used to enforce joining on this letter. This character is called U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER, or ZWJ for short.

Besides ZWJ, there’s another special Unicode character, U+0640 ARABIC TATWEEL, which enforces joining behavior (join causing) on letters next to it. But, in contrast to ZWJ, TATWEEL has a glyph shape, looking like a hyphen and usually as wide as the SPACE glyph, which connects to the letters on the main joining line (a.k.a. base-line). So, using TATWEEL would give a similar Joining Enforcement behavior, but has a side effect of wider length for the letter, which is not always desired. That’s why it’s highly recommended to only use ZWJ for joining control.

ZWJ example. — Example of using ZWJ (recommended) and TATWEEL (not recommended) for joining enforcement.

TATWEEL example. — Example of using ZWJ (recommended) and TATWEEL (not recommended) for joining enforcement.

In Unicode, ZWNJ and ZWJ are called Joining Control Characters.

Joining-Disjoining Enforcement

Two enforcement methods mentioned above can be combined together to form a Joining-Disjoining Enforcement method, that enables Joining Rule 3 for cases when there’s a dual-joining/right-joining letter after a join-to-left letter, which should not be joined to its previous letter.

ZWJ+ZWNJ example. — Example of using <ZWJ, ZWNJ> for joining-disjoining enforcement.

Context-Based Joining

Joining Control is not only managed by the content, but sometimes happens by the word context. For example, a word may be broken between two joined letters because of line break, meaning the content is not changed and only the joining form of letters should be maintained across the break.

Joining Segments

A sequence of letters that join together are called a Joining Segment. Regardless of language, joining segments have no direct relationship to syllables.

Two types of joining segments exist: closed and open.

Closed Joining Segments

Joining Segments usually have a closed form, meaning that they start in a non-join-to-right form and end in a non-join-to-left form. Closed joining segments are the result of segments either start and end with their normal behavior (Joining Rule 1), or by disjoining enforcement (Joining Rule 2).

There are two possible types of closed segments:

Single-Letter Closed Segment, which contains only one letter that is in its Isolated form.
Multi-Letter Closed Segment, which contains more than one letter, starting with an Initial form, zero or more Medial forms, and ending with a Final form.

A word with only single-letter closed segments. — Examples of closed joining segment types.

A word that is just one long multi-letter closed segment. — Examples of closed joining segment types.

Open Joining Segments

Under the certain cases, as noted in Joining Rules 3 and 4, joining segments can start with a join-to-right form, or end with a join-to-left form, or both.

There are three possible types of these segments:

Open-On-Left Segment, which contains one or more Dual-Joining letters, starting with an Initial form and continuing with zero or more Medial forms.
Open-On-Right Segment, which starts with zero or more Medial Form letters, and ends with a Final Form letter.
Open-On-Both-Sides Segment, which contains one or more Dual-Joining letters, all in their Medial Form.

An abbreviation with closed segments. — Examples of joining segment types.

An abbreviation with open-on-left segments. — Examples of joining segment types.

Non-Joining Characters

Arabic Letters, two Joining Control Characters (ZWNJ and ZWJ), and TATWEEL are the only characters used in the Arabic writing system with joining behavior.

Arabic diacritics, other Unicode non-spacing marks, and most Unicode format control characters are considered transparent in joining behavior.

All other Unicode characters in Arabic script (as well as Latin and many other major scripts) are non-joining and do not take any joining forms other than Isolated.

For more the details on Arabic Cursive Joining algorithm, please refer to chapter Middle East-I — Modern and Liturgical Scripts of The Unicode Standard. [[UNICODE]]

Special requirements when dealing with cursive glyphs

The cursive nature of the Arabic script requires more attention when applying some visual styles to the texts. It mostly occurs when the implementation assumes letters as separated shapes and does not account for cursive scripts.

Joining and Intra-Word Spaces

The only spaces inside Arabic words are created near characters that are not dual-joining. When adjusting intra-word spaces (i.e. the space inside the words) only these spaces can be adjusted. Moving two joined characters closer to or further from each other creates undesirable results.

Transparency

Arabic fonts achieve joining by overlapping letters. A left-joining letter extends out of its bounding box from the left side and a right-joining letter extends out of its bounding box from the right side. Making each letter transparent can expose these overlapping joinings, which should be avoided. Joining the paths of the joined letter into a single shape can remove the overlappings and create the good results.

Text border

When adding text border, simply adding a border to each letter shape fails to produce the proper result for the Arabic script. A joined letter should not be separated from its joined neighbors by adding border. Like transparency, a way to avoid this is to unify glyph paths into a single big path for all the letters that are joined and add border around that path.

Styling individual letters

For educational, technical, or even aesthetic reasons, users might want to apply a specific style to a single letter (or a few letters) in a word. For example, is the logo of the largest telecommunications provider in Oman.

Colour changes across joining characters in the logo for Omantel.

This should not break the letter’s joining with its neighbors, as shown in .

Applying style to a single letter should not interfere with its joining properties.

Family	Unicode Range	Numeral Digits	Regions in Use
European	U+0030 DIGIT ZERO .. U+0039 DIGIT NINE	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Western Arabic-speaking countries; e.g. Algeria or Morocco.
Arabic-Indic	U+0660 ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ZERO .. U+0669 ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT NINE	٠	١	٢	٣	٤	٥	٦	٧	٨	٩	Eastern Arabic-speaking countries; e.g. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq.
Eastern Arabic-Indic	U+06F0 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ZERO .. U+06F9 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT NINE	۰	۱	۲	۳	۴	۵	۶	۷	۸	۹	Iran and Afghanistan.

Line & paragraph layout

Line breaking & hyphenation

When Arabic text doesn't fit within the available line width, the text is wrapped to the next line between words.

In bidirectional text, if a line break occurs between a sequence of words that are progressing in a left-to-right direction the first line will be filled with LTR words that come at the start of the phrase in the order spoken (ie. not the visual order when laid out in a single line). This is because it is never correct to read lines from bottom to top. A similar rearrangement is required when a sequence of right-to-left words is split at the end of a line in an overall LTR context.

Text alignment & justification

Lines of Arabic script text are normally right aligned within the page.

There are a number of different ways to produce justified text in Arabic. In some cases several of these methods may be combined. In other cases, certain methods are disallowed.

Typical methods include:

Expansion or contraction of inter-word spaces.
Expansion or contraction of intra-word spaces, ie. the space following a character in the middle of a word that doesn't join with the character that follows it.
Use of wider glyph forms for certain characters.
Stretching of the joins between characters, known as 'kashida'.
Use of ligated forms, to reduce space taken by characters on a line.

Of the four basic justification methods (flush left, flush right, justified, and centered), justified is the most challenging, as it requires changing the widths of the lines to a predefined measure. Measure refers to the width of a column of text. In a justified paragraph the width of all the lines should be the same as the paragraph’s measure, except the last line.

In Arabic there are six mechanisms for changing the width of a line of text. Each one has its limitations and considerations on when and how it can be applied. Furthermore, different typographers and calligraphers have divergent preferences for these mechanisms.

An important factor in the application of these mechanisms is their success in creating an even color. The color of the text refers to the amount of ink (or blackness) used to print or show a block of text. Color describes the density of the text against its background. Poorly justifying paragraphs can create uneven distribution of color.

These mechanisms are not exclusive. Quite the contrary, they are commonly used simultaneously to produce better justified paragraphs. Combination of these mechanisms is discussed in Combination of the Mechanisms.

Adjusting Inter-Word Spaces

This is the same mechanism widely used when justifying Latin scripts, where the width of the spaces between the words can be increased or decreased to change the width of the line.

Aligning lines by increasing and decreasing spaces between the words.

A minimum width is defined for how much the space can be shrunk, because putting the words too close to each other creates aesthetic and legibility problems.

Stretching the space too wide is also undesirable, but is utilized as a last resort when it is not possible to use other solutions to make fully justified paragraphs. In some applications a maximum width for the inter-word space is defined as a soft limit (compared to minimum width which is a hard limit). Reaching the maximum width makes the software to try to use other solutions for justification. If no other solution could yield the required result, the software would fall back to inter-word spacing and stretch the space past the maximum width.

Depending solely on this mechanism for aligning lines in a justified paragraph can lead to unpleasant results, such as rivers (multiple stretched spaces appearing vertically close to each other and forming a white gap inside the paragraph) and uneven distribution of color in the paragraph. Hence, typographers generally use other mechanisms as well to minimize the effect of adjusting inter-word spaces.

Adjusting Intra-Word Spaces

This solution alters the space between letters of each word to change the width of the text. Like adjusting inter-word spaces, this is used for Latin scripts as well, but using it for Arabic script involves considerations specific to Arabic. As noted in Joining and Intra-Word Spaces, the principal consideration is that gaps between characters only exist for those letters that join only to the right, such as dal and reh . Adjustment of intra-word space is not relevant where one letter is joined to its neighbors.

Altering intra-word spaces between unjoined letters.

Depending on the writing style and the typeface in use, different amounts of alteration to the intra-word space is acceptable for Arabic. Some writing styles allow more liberal adjustments to the closeness of the letter groups, while others can only accept small adjustments in this regard. In any case, much smaller adjustments can be used for intra-word spacing in comparison for inter-word spacing, which naturally is wider and tolerate bigger adjustments.

Alternative Shapes

In addition to the four joining forms (isolated, initial, medial, and final), each Arabic letter can come with different shapes while preserving its joining form. For instance, a typeface or writing style can offer two or more shapes for the final form of a single letter.

These variant shapes usually have variant widths and hence can be used to adjust the width of the line.

Alternative shapes for changing the width of the text.

An advantage of using alternative letter shapes when justifying paragraphs is that it does not involve modifying default properties of the typeface (width of space or other characters). Instead, it is using shapes that are part of the typeface and are in harmony with other shapes in the lines.

But excessive use of alternative shapes, such as using multiple very wide alternatives close to each other, can create unnatural results.

It is not possible to justify paragraphs using only alternative letter shapes, because these shapes have predefined widths. For example, if a line should get 25 points wider, it is impossible to achieve that by using alternative letter shapes that are, say, 10 or 20 or 30 points wider than the default shapes. But these shapes can make the lines closer to measure, thus reducing the usage of other mechanisms.

Ligatures

Some Arabic fonts, following the writing styles that use special shapes when joining certain letters, provide a rich number of ligatures. These ligatures can be used in paragraph justification, since they usually reduce the widths of the words.

But existence of the ligatures in a font does not mean that they can be used freely. A font may provide some of its ligatures for creating an artistic style, which would be unsuitable for texts requiring optimum legibility.

For that reason, the user should be able to select which sets of ligatures can be used for justification. Fonts can offer predefined sets of ligatures to simplify this process.

Kashida

Kashida refers to extending the horizontal connection between joined letters.

This is a feature deeply related with the cursive nature of Arabic script. Kashida is an interesting tool for paragraph justification. It is more flexible than alternative letter shapes and ligatures, because it is not restricted to a limited number of predefined widths. At the same time, it has relatively less effect on the text color than spacing.

But a proper implementation of kashida involves a number of limitations and considerations.

Excessive use of kashida or applying very long kashidas results in uneven color. Also, horizontal or vertical proximity of numerous kashida creates an unnatural color.

Unpleasant result of excessive use of kashida.

Kashida is not always straight. Some fonts may require curvilinear kashidas, which require more advanced implementations.

Typographers can have preferred places for applying kashidas. In other words, instead of applying kashida between every joined pair of letters, they want it at certain joins.

There are multiple joins in this word, but only one is selected for kashida.

Another preference is avoiding multiple kashidas in a single word.

Tatweel

Tatweel is a dual-joining character that can be inserted between two joined letters to widen their connection. In The Unicode Standard, tatweel is represented as ـ [U+0640 ARABIC TATWEEL].

Tatweel extends letter connections in a fashion similar to kashida, but in a much more limited way. It is a character that has to be in the text or inserted like other characters. It has a predefined width, like any other character.

Yet it is much simpler to implement, since it acts like normal Arabic characters and does not require special treatment. For this reason, it can be considered useful specially in constrained implementations like fixed-width environments.

Combination of the Mechanisms

Each of the above six mechanisms have their own limitations and side effects. Utilizing only one of them for justifying paragraphs can create undesirable results. Multiple mechanisms can be used at the same time to work around their limitations and minimize their side effects.

Since Arabic provides various mechanisms that can be used for justification, an advanced implementation that supports all or most of the above features can produce exemplary justifications. More limited applications can combine what is available.

Preferences for each mechanisms can depend on the document and text and the preference of the typographers and users. Implementations can enable users to prioritize and control the mechanisms mentioned above.

Text spacing

There are situations where Arabic text is stretched for reasons other than justification. Common instances include:

In a heading, or a word on a street sign to make it more visible.
Alongside a transcriptions, to make Arabic text the same width.
To mimic voiced emphasis or drawn out sounds

These instances do not correspond to letter-spacing in non-cursive scripts, however. Apart from the fact that the stretching is indicated by stretching the baseline between characters, the stretching is not usually equidistant between all characters in the stretched text.

Baselines, line height, etc.

Arabic ascenders and descenders extend much further than those of the Latin script, and care must be taken to correctly align text in the different scripts when they appear together.

Lists, counters, etc.

Arabic script text may use special counter styles for lists, numbering headings, pages, etc., based on Arabic script characters.

Characters

The following tables list Unicode characters used for Arabic script. Each table has two columns named Ar and Fa which denote which characters are used for Arabic or Persian languages, respectively. The content of these columns is one of these symbols:

✓ means that the character is used for that language.
✲ means that the character is auxiliary for that language.
✕ means that the character is not used for that language.

Alphabetical characters

Character	UCS	Name	Ar	Fa
ء	U+0621	ARABIC LETTER HAMZA	✓	✓
آ	U+0622	ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH MADDA ABOVE	✓	✓
أ	U+0623	ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA ABOVE	✓	✓
ؤ	U+0624	ARABIC LETTER WAW WITH HAMZA ABOVE	✓	✓
إ	U+0625	ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA BELOW	✓	✲
ئ	U+0626	ARABIC LETTER YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE	✓	✓
ا	U+0627	ARABIC LETTER ALEF	✓	✓
ب	U+0628	ARABIC LETTER BEH	✓	✓
ة	U+0629	ARABIC LETTER TEH MARBUTA	✓	✓
ت	U+062A	ARABIC LETTER TEH	✓	✓
ث	U+062B	ARABIC LETTER THEH	✓	✓
ج	U+062C	ARABIC LETTER JEEM	✓	✓
ح	U+062D	ARABIC LETTER HAH	✓	✓
خ	U+062E	ARABIC LETTER KHAH	✓	✓
د	U+062F	ARABIC LETTER DAL	✓	✓
ذ	U+0630	ARABIC LETTER THAL	✓	✓
ر	U+0631	ARABIC LETTER REH	✓	✓
ز	U+0632	ARABIC LETTER ZAIN	✓	✓
س	U+0633	ARABIC LETTER SEEN	✓	✓
ش	U+0634	ARABIC LETTER SHEEN	✓	✓
ص	U+0635	ARABIC LETTER SAD	✓	✓
ض	U+0636	ARABIC LETTER DAD	✓	✓
ط	U+0637	ARABIC LETTER TAH	✓	✓
ظ	U+0638	ARABIC LETTER ZAH	✓	✓
ع	U+0639	ARABIC LETTER AIN	✓	✓
غ	U+063A	ARABIC LETTER GHAIN	✓	✓
ف	U+0641	ARABIC LETTER FEH	✓	✓
ق	U+0642	ARABIC LETTER QAF	✓	✓
ك	U+0643	ARABIC LETTER KAF	✓	✲
ل	U+0644	ARABIC LETTER LAM	✓	✓
م	U+0645	ARABIC LETTER MEEM	✓	✓
ن	U+0646	ARABIC LETTER NOON	✓	✓
ه	U+0647	ARABIC LETTER HEH	✓	✓
و	U+0648	ARABIC LETTER WAW	✓	✓
ى	U+0649	ARABIC LETTER ALEF MAKSURA	✓	✲
ي	U+064A	ARABIC LETTER YEH	✓	✲
ٯ	U+066F	ARABIC LETTER DOTLESS QAF	✲	✕
ٱ	U+0671	ARABIC LETTER ALEF WASLA	✕	✲
پ	U+067E	ARABIC LETTER PEH	✲	✓
چ	U+0686	ARABIC LETTER TCHEH	✲	✓
ژ	U+0698	ARABIC LETTER JEH	✲	✓
ڜ	U+069C	ARABIC LETTER SEEN WITH THREE DOTS BELOW AND THREE DOTS ABOVE	✲	✕
ڢ	U+06A2	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH DOT MOVED BELOW	✲	✕
ڤ	U+06A4	ARABIC LETTER VEH	✲	✕
ڥ	U+06A5	ARABIC LETTER FEH WITH THREE DOTS BELOW	✲	✕
ڧ	U+06A7	ARABIC LETTER QAF WITH DOT ABOVE	✲	✕
ڨ	U+06A8	ARABIC LETTER QAF WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE	✲	✕
ک	U+06A9	ARABIC LETTER KEHEH	✲	✓
گ	U+06AF	ARABIC LETTER GAF	✲	✓
ی	U+06CC	ARABIC LETTER FARSI YEH	✲	✓

Diacritics

UCS	Name	Ar	Fa
U+064B	ARABIC FATHATAN	✓	✓
U+064C	ARABIC DAMMATAN	✓	✓
U+064D	ARABIC KASRATAN	✓	✓
U+064E	ARABIC FATHA	✓	✲
U+064F	ARABIC DAMMA	✓	✲
U+0650	ARABIC KASRA	✓	✲
U+0651	ARABIC SHADDA	✓	✓
U+0652	ARABIC SUKUN	✓	✲
U+0653	ARABIC MADDAH ABOVE	✕	✲
U+0654	ARABIC HAMZA ABOVE	✕	✓
U+0655	ARABIC HAMZA BELOW	✕	✲
U+0670	ARABIC LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALEF	✕	✓

Numeral characters

Character	UCS	Name	Ar	Fa
٠	U+0660	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ZERO	✓	✕
١	U+0661	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ONE	✓	✕
٢	U+0662	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT TWO	✓	✕
٣	U+0663	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT THREE	✓	✕
٤	U+0664	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT FOUR	✓	✕
٥	U+0665	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT FIVE	✓	✕
٦	U+0666	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT SIX	✓	✕
٧	U+0667	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT SEVEN	✓	✕
٨	U+0668	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT EIGHT	✓	✕
٩	U+0669	ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT NINE	✓	✕
۰	U+06F0	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ZERO	✕	✓
۱	U+06F1	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ONE	✕	✓
۲	U+06F2	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT TWO	✕	✓
۳	U+06F3	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT THREE	✕	✓
۴	U+06F4	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT FOUR	✕	✓
۵	U+06F5	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT FIVE	✕	✓
۶	U+06F6	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT SIX	✕	✓
۷	U+06F7	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT SEVEN	✕	✓
۸	U+06F8	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT EIGHT	✕	✓
۹	U+06F9	EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT NINE	✕	✓

Punctuation and symbols

Character	UCS	Name	Ar	Fa
	U+0020	SPACE	✕	✓
!	U+0021	EXCLAMATION MARK	✓	✓
"	U+0022	QUOTATION MARK	✓	✕
'	U+0027	APOSTROPHE	✓	✕
(	U+0028	LEFT PARENTHESIS	✓	✓
)	U+0029	RIGHT PARENTHESIS	✓	✓
*	U+002A	ASTERISK	✕	✓
+	U+002B	PLUS SIGN	✓	✓
,	U+002C	COMMA	✓	✓
-	U+002D	HYPHEN-MINUS	✓	✓
.	U+002E	FULL STOP	✓	✓
/	U+002F	SOLIDUS	✕	✓
:	U+003A	COLON	✓	✓
;	U+003B	SEMICOLON	✓	✓
<	U+003C	LESS-THAN SIGN	✕	✓
=	U+003D	EQUALS SIGN	✕	✓
>	U+003E	GREATER-THAN SIGN	✕	✓
?	U+003F	QUESTION MARK	✓	✓
[	U+005B	LEFT SQUARE BRACKET	✓	✓

Control characters

UCS	Name	Ar	Fa
U+000A	<control>	✕	✓
U+000D	<control>	✕	✓
U+200C	ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER	✕	✓
U+200D	ZERO WIDTH JOINER	✕	✓
U+200E	LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK	✲	✲
U+200F	RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK	✲	✲
U+2028	LINE SEPARATOR	✕	✲
U+2029	PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR	✕	✲
U+202A	LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING	✕	✲
U+202B	RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING	✕	✲
U+202C	POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING	✕	✲
U+202D	LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE	✕	✲
U+202E	RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE	✕	✲
U+2060	WORD JOINER	✕	✓
U+2066	LEFT-TO-RIGHT ISOLATE	✕	✲
U+2067	RIGHT-TO-LEFT ISOLATE	✕	✲
U+2068	FIRST STRONG ISOLATE	✕	✲
U+2069	POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE	✕	✲
U+FEFF	ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE	✕	✓

Unicode 6.3 introduced directional isolate characters to replace the more complicated directional embedding characters. These new characters are in the process of being supported in applications and their usage is encouraged over the old embedding characters. U+202A LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING, U+202B RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING, U+202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING, U+202D LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE, U+202E RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE are the old embedding characters and U+2066 LEFT‑TO‑RIGHT ISOLATE, U+2067 RIGHT‑TO‑LEFT ISOLATE, U+2068 FIRST STRONG ISOLATE, and U+2069 POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE are the new isolate characters.

Also, character U+FEFF ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE is deprecated and should be replaced with U+2060 WORD JOINER.

Glossary

Term	Arabic	Transliterated Arabic	Persian	Transliterated Persian	Definition
abbreviation	اِخْتِزَالْ	ikhtizāl
alignment	مُحَاذَاةْ، تَرصِيف	muḥādhāt, tarṣīf	هم‌ترازی	hmtrāzi
alphanumeric	أَبجَدِي عَدَدِي	abjadī ʻadadī	الفبایی عددی	ālfbāiy addi
appendix	مُلحَق	mulḥaq	ضمیمه	zmimh
arabic numerals	أَرْقَامْ عَرَبِيَّة، أَرْقَامْ أُورُوبِيَّة	arqām ʻarabīyah, arqām ūrūbīyah	ارقام عربی	ārqām arbi	Refer to "European numerals". Use "European numerals" or "ASCII numerals" to avoid confusion.
ascender	جُزْءُ الحَرْفِ العُلْوِي، الصَّاعِدْ	juz’u al-ḥarfi al-ʻulwī, al-ṣṣāʻid	خط صعود، کرسی بالا	xt s’ud, krsi bālā
asterisk	نَجْمَة	najmah	ستاره	stārh
auto spacing	تَبَاعُدْ ذَاتِي، فَرَاغْ آلِي	tabāʻud dhātī, farāgh ālī	فاصله‌گذاری خودکار	fāslhɡzāri xudkār
back margin	الهَامِشْ الخَلْفِي	al-hāmish al-khalfī	حاشیهٔ داخلی	hāšihٔ dāxli
back matter	بَيَانَاتْ نِهَايَةْ الكِتَابْ	bayānāt nihāyat al-kitāb	واحدهای پس از متن	uāhdhāy ps aoez mtn	Appendices, supplements, glossary of terms, index and/or bibliography, and so on, appended at the end of a book.
bad break	قَطْعْ سَيِّئْ	qaṭʻ sayyi’	شکستن بد، سطرشکنی بد	škstn bd, strškni bd
baseline	خَطْ قَاعِدِي، خَطْ الاِرْتِكَازْ، سَطْرُ الأَسَاسْ	khaṭ qāʻidī, khaṭ al-irtikāz, satru al-’asās	خط کرسی	xt krsi	A virtual line on which almost all glyphs in Western fonts are designed to be aligned.
bibliography	المَرَاجِعْ	al-marājiʻ	کتابنامه	ktābnāmh	A list of works and papers related to the subjects in the text.
blank page	صَفْحَة فَارِغَة	ṣafḥah fārighah	صفحهٔ خالی	sfhhٔ xāli	An empty page.
bleed	خَارِجْ إِطَارْ الصَّفْحَة	khārij iṭār al-ṣafḥah	تصویرْ تا بُرِش	tsuyrْ tā boreš	To print a picture or a tint to run off the edge of a trimmed page.
block direction	اِتِّجَاهْ المَقْطَعْ، اِتِّجَاهْ الكُتْلَة	ittijāh al-maqṭaʻ, ittijāh al-kutlah	جهت نوشتار	jht nuštār	The progression direction of lines, one after the other.
block quotation	كُتْلَة اِقْتِبَاسْ، مُرَبَّعْ اِقْتِبَاسْ	kutlat iqtibās, murabbaʻ iqtibās	نقل‌قول پاراگرافی	nqlqul pārāɡrāfi
body type	الخَطْ الرَّئِيسِي	al-khaṭ al-rra’īsī	حروف بدنه	hruf bdnh
bold	غَلِيظْ	ghalīẓ	حرف سیاه	hrf siāh	A kind of font style. Similar to bold in Western typography.
boldface	خَطْ غَلِيظْ	khaṭ ghalīẓ	حرف سیاه	hrf siāh
bound on the left-hand side	مُلْزِمَة عَلَى الجَانِبْ الأَيْسَرْ	mulzimah ʻalá al-jānib al-’aysar	صحافی چپ‌به‌راست	shāfi čpbhrāst	Binding of a book to be opened from the left.
bound on the right-hand side	مُلْزِمَة عَلَى الجَانِبْ الأَيْمَنْ	mulzimah ʻalá al-jānib al-’ayman	صحافی راست‌به‌چپ	shāfi rāstbhčp	Binding of a book to be opened from the right.
bounding box	المُرَبَّعْ المُحِيطْ	al-murabbaʻ al-muḥīṭ	کادر محیطی	kādr mhiti
box	مُرَبَّعْ	murabbaʻ	کادر، جعبه	kādr, j’bh
braces	قَوْسَيْنْ	qawsayn	آکولاد	ākulād	{ and }
brackets	قوسين قَوْسَيْنْ مُرَبَّعَيْنْ	qawsayn murabbaʻayn	کروشه	krušh	[ and ]
break (a line)	فَصْلْ السَّطْرْ، قَطْعْ (سَطْرْ)	faṣl al-saṭr, qaṭʻ (saṭr)	شکستن (خط)، سطرشکنی	škstn (xt), strškni	To place the first of two adjacent characters at the end of a line and the second at the head of a new line.
broadside	وَرَقَة عَلَى صَفْحَة عَرِيضَة	waraqah ʻalá ṣafḥah ʻarīḍah	یک‌رو	ikru	In book typography, a sheet of paper printed as one page.
bullet	رَمْزْ نَقْطِي	ramz naqṭī			centered dot
calligraphy	فَنُّ الخَطِّ، الخَطُّ (فَنْ الخَطْ، الخَطْ)	fannu al-khaṭṭi, al-khaṭṭu (fan al-khaṭ, al-khaṭ)	خوشنویسی	xušnuysi
caption	تَسْمِيَة، عُنْوَانْ	tasmīah, ʻunwān	عنوان، شرح	’nuān, šrh	A title or a short description accompanying a picture, an illustration, or a table.
cell	خَلِيَة	khalīah	سلول	slul	Each element area of tables, cell.
cell contents	مُحْتَوَى الخَلِيَة	muḥtawá al-khalīah	محتوای سلول	mhtuāy slul	The content of each cell in tables.
cell padding	حَشْوْ الخَلِيَة	ḥashw al-khalīah			Spaces between line and cell in tables.
centered alignment	تَوْسِيطْ	tawsīṭ	ترازبندی وسط‌چین	trāzbndi vstčin
centered dot	نُقْطَة مُوَسَّطَة	nuqṭah mūassaṭah
centering	تَوْسِيطْ	tawsīṭ	وسط‌چین کردن	ustčin krdn	To align the center of a run of text that is shorter than a given line length to the center of a line.
chapter	فَصْلْ، بَابْ	faṣl, bāb	فصل	fsl
character	حَرْفْ	ḥarf	حرف	hrf
character count	عَدَدْ الحُرُوفْ	ʻadad al-ḥurūf	تعداد حروف	t’dād hruf
character frame	إِطَارْ الحَرْفْ	iṭār al-ḥarf			Rectangular area occupied by a character when it is set solid.
character set	مَجْمُوعَةْ حُرُوفْ	majmūʻat ḥurūf	مجموعهٔ حروف	mjmu’hٔ hruf
character shape	شَكْلُ الحَرْفْ	shaklu al-ḥarf	شکل حرف	škl hrf	Incarnation of a character by handwriting, printing or rendering to a computer screen.
character size	حَجْمُ الحَرْفْ	ḥajmu al-ḥarf	اندازهٔ حرف	āndāzhٔ hrf	Dimensions of a character. Unless otherwise noted, it refers to the size of a character frame in the block direction.
closing bracket	قَوْسْ إِغْلَاقْ	qaws ighlāq	کروشه بسته	kruše bsth
code point	نُقْطة تَرْمِيزْ	nuqṭat tarmīz
color	لَوْنْ	lawn			Characteristics like darkness, contrast, texture that give the an overall impression of how dense or heavy the text appears on the page.
colon	نُقْطَتَيْنْ	nuqṭatayn	دونقطه	dunqth
column	عَمُودْ	ʻamūd	ستون	stun	A partition on a page in multi-column format.
column gap	تَبَاعُدْ الأَعْمِدَة	tabāʻud al-’aʻmidah	فاصلهٔ ستون	fāslhٔ stun	Amount of space between columns on a page.
column spanning	عَبْرُ الأَعْمدَة	ʻabr al-’aʻmidah			A setting style of illustrations, tables, etc., over hanging to multiple columns.
column spanning heading	رَأْسْ عَبْرْ الأَعْمدَة	ra’s ʻabr al-’aʻmidah			Headings using multiple columns.
comma	فَاصِلَة	fāṣilah	ویرگول	uyrɡul
composition	تَرْكِيبْ	tarkīb	حروفچینی و صفحه‌بندی	hrufčini v sfhhbndi	Process of arrangement of text, figures and/or pictures, etc on a page in a desired layout (design) in preparation for printing.
compound word	كَلِمَة مُرَكَّبَة	kalimah murakkabah	کلمهٔ مرکب	klmhٔ mrkb
connection	وَصْلْ	waṣl
continuous pagination	تَرْقِيمْ الصَّفَحَاتْ المُسْتَمِرْ	tarqīm al-ṣṣafaḥāt al-mustamir	صفحه‌شماری پیوسته	sfhhšmāri pivsth	a) To number the pages of a book continuously across all those in the front matter, the text and the back matter. b) To number the pages continuously across those of all books, such as a series published in separate volumes. Also to number the pages continuously across those of all issues of a periodical published in a year, aside from pagination per issue.
control characters	حُرُوفْ تَحَكُّمْ	ḥurūf taḥakkum	حروف کنترلی	hruf kntrli
copy	نُسْخَة	nuskhah	نسخه	nsxh
cover	غِلَافْ	ghilāf	جلد	jld
cut-in heading					A style of headings. Headings do not occupy the full lines, but share lines area with following main text lines.
dash	وَاصِلَة	wāṣilah
dedication	إِهْدَاءْ	ihdā’	اهدائیه	āhdā’ih
descender line	مَا تَحْتَ السَّطْرْ	mā taḥta al-ssaṭr			A descender is the part of a letter extending below the base line, as in 'g', 'j', 'p', 'q', or 'y'. A descender line is a virtual line drawn at the bottom of descender parallel to base line.
diacritical marks	علامات التشكيل	ʻalāmāt al-ttashkīl	اِعراب، نشانه‌های حروف	āe’rāb, nšānhhāy hruf
diagonal fraction	جُزْءْ قُطْرِي	juz’ quṭrī
diagram	رَسْمْ بَيَانِي، رَسْمْ تَخْطِيطِي	rasm bayānī, rasm takhṭīṭī	نمودار	nmudār
disconnection	فَصْلْ	faṣl
discretionary hyphen	وَاصِلَة لَيِّنَة	wāṣilah layyinah			See soft hyphen.
display	عَرْضْ	ʻarḍ	نمایش	nmāyš
display type	نَوْعْ العَرْضْ	nawʻ al-ʻarḍ
document	وَثِيقَة، مُسْتَنَدْ	wathīqah, mustanad	سند	snd
dpi	نُقْطَة فِي البُوصَة	nuqṭah fī al-būṣah	نقطه در اینچ	nqte dr ieynč	Dots per inch (DPI, or dpi) is a measure of spatial printing.
eastern arabic numerals	الأَرقَامْ العَرَبِيَّة المَشْرِقِيَّة	al-’arqām al-ʻarabīyah al-mashriqīyah			٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩
ellipsis	عَلَامَة القَطْع، القَطْعْ	ʻalāmat al-qaṭʻ, al-qaṭʻ	سه‌نقطه	shnqth
Elongation	التَّطْوِيلْ	al-ttaṭwīl
EM	(وَحَدَةْ قِيَاسْ) إِمْ، وَحَدَةْ قِيَاسْ النُقْطَة	(waḥadah qīās) im, waḥadat qīās al-nuqṭah	اِم، ضربه	āem, zrbh	Unit in the field of typography, equal to the currently specified point size. A reference to the width of the capital "M"
em dash	خَطْ فاصِلْ مِنْ حَجْمْ اِمْ، وَصْلَة طَوِيلَة	khaṭ fṣil min ḥajm im, waṣlah ṭawīlah	خط	xt	A wide dash, usually of size EM
em space	فَرَاغْ مِنْ حَجْمْ اِمْ، فَرَاغْ طَوِيلْ	farāgh min ḥajm im, farāgh ṭawīl	فاصلهٔ اِم	fāslhٔ em	A wide space, usually of size EM
EN	نصف وحدة قياس النقطة	niṣf waḥadat qīās al-nuqṭah	اِن	āen	???
en dash	وَصْلَة مُتَوَسِّطَة	waṣlah mutawassiṭah	خط اِن	xt en	A not-so-wide dash, usually of size EN
en space	مَسَافَة مُتَوَسِّطَة	masāfah mutawassiṭah	فاصلهٔ اِن	fāslhٔ en	A not-so-wide space, usually of size EN
encoding	تَرْمِيزْ	tarmīz	کدنگاری	kdnɡāri
endnote	التَّعْلِيقْ الخِتَامِي، حَاشِيَة	al-ttaʻlīq al-khitāmī, ḥāshīah			A set of notes placed at the end of a part, chapter, section, paragraph and so on, or at the end of a book.
epigraph	اِقْتِبَاسْ، مَقُولَة قَصِيرَة	iqtibās, maqūlah qaṣīrah	سرلوحه	srluhh
European numerals	أَرْقَامْ أُورُوبِيَّة	arqām ūrūbīyah	ارقام اروپایی	ārqām aoerupāiy	Any of the symbols in [0-9] used to represent numbers. Sometimes called Arabic numerals or ASCII numerals.
exception dictionary	قَامُوسْ الإِسْتِثْنَاءَاتْ	qāmūs al-’istithnā’āt
exclamation marks	عَلَامَاتْ التَّعَجُّبْ	ʻalāmāt al-ttaʻajjub	علامت تعجب	’lāmt t’jb
figure	شَكْلْ	shakl	تصویر	tsuyr
first-line indent	مَسَافَة السَّطْرْ الأَوَّلْ	masāfat al-ssaṭr al-’awwal	تورفتگی خط اول	turftɡi xt uowl
fixed-width	ثَابِتْ العَرْضْ	thābit al-ʻarḍ			A characteristic of a font where the same character advance is assigned for all glyphs.
flush left alignment	مُحَاذَاة إِلَى اليَمِينْ	muḥādhāt ilá al-yamīn
flush right alignment	مُحَاذَاة إِلَى اليَسَارْ	muḥādhāt ilá al-yasār
folio	وَرَقَة، صَفْحَة	waraqah, ṣafḥah	شمارهٔ صفحه	šmārhٔ sfhh
font	الخَطْ	al-khaṭ	فونت، قلم	funt, qlm	A set of character glyphs of a given typeface.
font family/typeface family	أُسْرَة مِحْرَفْ، أُسْرَة خُطُوطْ	usrat miḥraf, usrat khuṭūṭ	خانوادهٔ فونت	xānuādhٔ funt
font metrics	مَقَايِيسْ الخَطْ	maqāyīs al-khaṭ
foot	تَذْيِيلْ	tadhyīl	پایه	pāyh	a) The bottom part of a book or a page. b) The bottom margin between the edge of a trimmed page and the hanmen (text area)
foot/bottom margin	الهاَمِشْ الأَسْفَلْ	al-hamish al-’asfal	حاشیهٔ پایینی	hāšihٔ pāiyni
footer	تَذْيِيلْ الصَّفْحَة	tadhyīl al-ṣṣafḥah	پاصفحه	pāsfhh
footnote	حَاشِيَة سَفْلِيَة	ḥāshīah saflīyah	پانویس	pānuys	A note in a smaller face than that of main text, placed at the bottom of a page.
fore-edge	الحَافة العَمودِيَّة الخَارِجِيَّة	al-ḥāfh al-ʻamwdīyah al-khārijīyah	حاشیهٔ بیرونی	hāšihٔ biruni	a) The three front trimmed edges of pages in a book. b) The opposite sides of the gutter in a book.
format	تنْسِيقْ، هَيْئَة	tansīq, hay’ah	شکل‌بندی، شکل	šklbndi, škl
fraction	كَسْرْ	Kasr
front matter	المَادَّة الأَمَامِيَّة	al-māddah al-’amāmīyah	واحدهای پیش از متن	uāhdhāy piš aoez mtn	The first part of a book followed by the text, usually consisting of a forward, preface, table of contents, list of illustrations, acknowledgement and so on.
full-width	تَامْ العَرْضْ	tām al-ʻarḍ			a) Relative index for the length which is equal to a given character size. b) Character frame which character advance is equal to the amount referred to as a). A full-width character frame is square in shape by definition.
glyph	صُورَةْ الرَّمْزْ	ṣūrah al-rramz
golden rectangle			مستطیل طلایی	msttil tlāiy
golden section			بخش طلایی	bxš tlāiy
Greek letters	حُرُوفْ يُونَانِيَّة	ḥurūf yūnānīyah	حروف یونانی	hruf yvnāni
grid alignment			هم‌ترازی شطرنجی	hmtrāzi štrnji
gutter	حَاشِیَة	ḥāshīah	حاشیه	hāših	a) The binding side of a spread of a book. b) the margin between the binding edge of a book and the hanmen (text area). c) The part of a book where all pages are bound together to the book spine.
half em	نِصْفْ اِمْ	niṣf im	نیم اِم	nim em	Half of the full-width size.
half em space	فَرَاغْ نِصْفْ اِمْ	farāgh niṣf im	فاصلهٔ نیم اِم	fāslhٔ nim em	Amount of space that is half size of em space.
hang line	سَطْرْ مُعَلَّقْ	saṭr muʻallaq
hanging indentation	تعليق المسافة البادئة
hanging punctuation	تعليق علامات الترقيم
harakat	حَرَكَاتْ	ḥarakāt			Tashkil marks representing short vowel sounds.
head	رَأْسْ	ra’s	سَر	sar	a) The top part of a book or a page. b) The top margin between the top edge of a trimmed page and the hanmen (text area)
head/top margin	هَامِشْ عُلْوِي	hāmish ʻulwī	حاشیهٔ بالا	hāšihٔ bālā
header	رَأْسْ	ra’s	سرصفحه	srsfhh
heading	عُنْوَانْ	ʻunwān	عنوان	’nuān	a) A title of a paper or an article. b) A title for each section of a book, paper or article.
headline	عُنْوَانْ رَئِيسِي	ʻunwān ra’īsī
headnote	تَقْدِمَة	taqdimah			A kind of notes in vertical writing style, head area in kihon-hanmen is kept beforehand, and notes are set with smaller size font than main text.
hierarchy	تسلسل هرمي، ترتيب هرمي		سلسله‌مراتب	slslhmrātb
horizontal writing mode	صِيغَة الكِتَابَة الأُفُقِيَّة	ṣīghat al-kitābah al-’ufuqīyah	حالت نوشتار افقی	hālt nuštār aoefqi	The process or the result of arranging characters on a line from left to right, of lines on a page from top to bottom, and/or of columns on a page from left to right.
hyphen	وَاصِلَة	wāṣilah	نیمخط	nimxt
hyphenation	اِسْتِخْدَامْ الوَاصِلَة	istikhdām al-wāṣilah			A method of breaking a line by dividing a Western word at the end of a line and adding a hyphen at the end of the first half of the syllable.
hyphenation and justification	الوَاصِلَة وَالمُحَاذَاةْ	al-wāṣilah wālmuḥādhāt			Also abbreviated as H&J
hyphenation routine	إِجْرَاءْ الوَاصِلَة	ijrā’ al-wāṣilah
ihmal	إِهْمَالْ	ihmāl			See tashkil
ijam	إِعْجَامْ	iʻjām			Diacritical marks applied to a basic letter shape (or skeleton) to derive a new letter. For example a dot under a "curve" to get the letter Beh. In Unicode each letter plus ijam combination is encoded as a separate, atomic character.
illustrations	رَسْمْ تَوْضِيحِي، صُورَة إِيضَاحِيَّة	rasm tawḍīḥī, ṣūrahīḍāḥīyah	تصویر	tsuyr	A general term referring to a diagram, chart, cut, figure, picture and the like, to be used for printed materials.
indentation	إِزَاحَة، مَسَافَة بَادِئَة	izāḥah, masāfah bādi’ah	فاصلهٔ سرِ سطر، تورفتگی سرِ سطر	fāslhٔ sre str, turftɡi sre str
independent pagination	تَرْقِيمْ الصَّفَحَاتْ مُسْتَقِلْ	tarqīm al-ṣṣafaḥāt mustaqil	صفحه‌بندی مستقل	sfhhbndi mstql	To number the pages of the front matter, the text and the back matter independently.
index	فِهْرِسْ	fihris	فهرست راهنما	fhrst rāhnmā	A list of terms or subjects with page numbers for where they are referred to in a single or multiple volumes of a book.
initial	أَوَّلِي	awwalī	آغازین	āqāzin
inline direction	الاِتِّجَاهْ السَّطْرِي	al-ittijāh al-ssaṭrī			Text direction in a line.
input	إِدْخَالْ	idkhāl	ورودی	urudi
inseparable characters rule	قَاعِدَة مَحَارِفْ لَا تَنْفَصِلْ	qāʻidat maḥārif lā tanfaṣil			A line adjustment rule that prohibits inserting any space between specific combinations of characters.
interpunct
italics	مَائِلْ	mā’il	ایتالیک	āytālik
itemization	وَضْعْ بُنُودْ، تَبْوِيبْ، عَنَاصِرْ	waḍʻ bunūd, tabwīb, ʻanāṣir			To list ordered or unordered items one under the other.
justified alignment	مُحَاذَاةْ مَضْبُوطَة	muḥādhāt maḍbūṭah	هم‌ترازی میزان	hmtrāzi mizān
kashida	الْكَشِيدَة، التَّطْوِيلْ	al-kashīdah, al-ttaṭwīl	کشیده	kšidh
label name	اِسْمْ بِطَاقَةْ العَنْوَنَة	ism biṭāqat al-ʻanwanah			Text following or followed by numbers for illustrations, tables, headings and running headings.
Latin letters	حُرُوف لَاتِينِيَّة	ḥurūf lātīnīyah	حروف لاتین	hruf lātin
layout	نَسْقْ، تَصْمِيمْ	nasq, taṣmīm	قالب‌بندی	qālbbndi
leading	قِيَادِي	qīādī
letter face	صُورَةْ الحَرْفْ	ṣūrat al-ḥarf			Area in which glyph is drawn.
lettering	تَرْقِينْ، كِتَابَة	tarqīn, kitābah	طراحی حروف	trāhi hruf
letterpress printing	طِبَاعَةْ الحُرُوفْ	ṭibāʻat al-ḥurūf	چاپ برجسته	čāp brjsth	The traditional printing method using movable type.
letterspacing	تَبَاعُدْ الحُرُوفْ	tabāʻud al-ḥurūf	فاصلهٔ حروف	fāslhٔ hruf
ligature	رَبْطْ بَيْنَ الحُرُوفْ، تَرْكِيبْ، حَرْفْ مُرَكَّبْ	rabṭ bayna al-ḥurūf, tarkīb, ḥarf murakkab
line	سَطْرْ	saṭr	خط	xt
line adjustment	مُحَاذَاةْ السَّطْرْ	muḥādhāt al-ssaṭr	تنظیم خط	tnzim xt	A method of aligning both edges of all lines to be the same given length by removing or adding adjustable spaces.
line adjustment by hanging punctuation	مُحَاذَاة السَّطْرْ بِتَعْلِيقْ عَلَامَاتْ التَّرْقِيمْ	muḥādhāt al-ssaṭr bitaʻlīq ʻalāmāt al-ttarqīm			A line breaking rule to avoid commas or full stops at a line head (which is prohibited in Japanese typography) by taking them back to the end of the previous line beyond the specified line length.
line adjustment by inter-character space expansion	مُحَاذَاة السَّطْرْ بِتَوسِيع الفَرَاغْ بَيْنَ المَحَارِفْ	muḥādhāt al-ssaṭr bitawsīʻ al-farāgh bayna al-maḥārif			A line breaking rule that aligns both edges of a line by expanding inter-character spaces. .
line breaking rules	قَوَاعِد كَسْرْ السَّطْرْ	qawāʻid kasr al-ssaṭr			A set of rules to avoid prohibited layout in Japanese typography, such as "line-start prohibition rule", "line-end prohibition rule", inseparable or unbreakable character sequences and so on.
line end	نِهَايَة السَّطْرْ	nihāyat al-ssaṭr	انتهای خط	ānthāy xt	The position at which a line ends.
line end alignment	مُحَاذَاة نِهَايَة السَّطْرْ	muḥādhāt nihāyat al-ssaṭr	هم‌ترازی انتهای خط	hmtrāzi aoenthāy xt	To align a run of text to the line end.
line end indent	مَسَافَة بَدْئْ نِهَايَة السَّطْرْ	masāfat bad’ nihāyat al-ssaṭr	تورفتگی انتهای خط	turftɡi aoenthāy xt	To reserve a certain amount of space before the default position of a line end.
line feed	تَغْذِيَة السَّطْرْ	taghdhīat al-ssaṭr			The distance between two adjacent lines measured by their reference points.
line gap	فَجْوَة السَّطْرْ	fajwat al-ssaṭr	فاصلهٔ بین خطوط	fāslhٔ bin xtut	The smallest amount of space between adjacent lines.
line head	رَأْسْ السَّطْرْ	ra’s al-ssaṭr	سرِ سطر	sre str	The position at which a line starts.
line head alignment	مُحَاذَاة رَأْسْ السَّطْرْ	muḥādhāt ra’s al-ssaṭr	هم‌ترازیِ سر سطر	hmtrāzie sr str	To align a run of text to the line head.
line head indent	مَسَافَة بَدْئْ رَأْسْ السَّطْرْ	masāfat bad’ ra’s al-ssaṭr	فاصلهٔ سر سطر، تو رفتگی سر سطر	fāslhٔ sr str, tu rftɡi sr str	To reserve a certain amount of space after the default position of a line head.
line height	اِرْتِفَاعْ الخَطْ	irtifāʻ al-khaṭ	ارتفاع خط	ārtfā’ xt
line length	طُولُ السَطْرْ	ṭūlu al-saṭr	طول خط	tul xt	Length of a line with a pre-defined number of characters. When the line is indented at the line head or the line end, it is length of the line from the specified amount of line head indent to the specified amount of line end indent.
line spacing	تَبَاعُدْ الأَسْطُرْ	tabāʻud al-’asṭur
line-end prohibition rule	قَاعِدَة حَظْرْ نِهَايَة السَّطْرْ	qāʻidat ḥaẓr nihāyat al-ssaṭr			A line breaking rule that prohibits specific characters at a line end.
line-start prohibition rule	قَاعِدَة حَظْرْ بِدَايَة السَّطْرْ	qāʻidat ḥaẓr bidāyat al-ssaṭr			A line breaking rule that prohibits specific characters at a line head.
list	قَائِمَة، لَائِحَة	qā’imah, lā’iḥah	فهرست	fhrst
long dash	شَرْطَة طَوِيلَة	sharṭah ṭawīlah
mabsut	مَبْسُوطْ	mabsūṭ			Kind of writing style that tends to rigidity and firmness with pronounced angularity.
main text	نَصْ رَئِيسِي	naṣ ra’īsī	متن اصلی	mtn aoesli	a) The principal part of a book, usually preceded by the front matter, followed by the back matter. b) The principal part of an article excluding figures, tables, heading, notes, leads and so on. c) The content of a page excluding running heads and page numbers. d) The net contents of a book excluding covers, end papers, insets and so on.
margin	هَامِشْ	hāmish	حاشیه	hāših
measure	قِيَاسْ	qīās	مقیاس، اندازه	mqiās, aoendāzh
measurement	قِيَاسْ	qīās	اندازه‌گیری	āndāzhɡiri
mixed text composition	تَرْكِيبَة النَّصْ المُخْتَلِطْ	tarkībah al-nnaṣ al-mukhtaliṭ			a) To interleave Japanese text with Western text in a line (Japanese and Western mixed text composition). b) To compose text with different sizes of characters (mixed size composition). c) To compose text with different typefaces (mixed typeface composition).
mixing typefaces	خَلْطْ أنْمَاطْ الخُطُوطْ	khalṭ anmāṭ al-khuṭūṭ	ترکیب قلم‌ها	trkib qlmhā
modular grid	شَبَكَة وَحَدَاتْ، شَبَكَة مُرَكَّبَة مِنْ وَحَدَاتْ	shabakah waḥadāt, shabakah murakkabat min waḥadāt	شطرنجی مُدولی	štrnji moduli
multi-column format	تَنْسِيقْ مُتَعَدِّدْ الأَعْمِدَة	tansīq mutaʻaddid al-’aʻmidah	شکل‌بندی چندستونی	šklbndi čndstuni	A format of text on a page where text is divided into two or more sections (columns) in the inline direction and each column is separated by a certain amount of space (column space).
multi-column grid	شَبَكَة مُتَعَدِّدَة الأَعْمِدَة	shabakah mutaʻaddidat al-’aʻmidah	شطرنجی چندستونی	štrnji čndstuni
multivolume work	عَمَلْ مُتَعَدِّدْ الأَجْزاءْ	ʻamal mutaʻaddid al-’ajz’	اثر چند جلدی	āsr čnd jldi	A set of work published in two or more volumes, as in the complete work or the first/last half volumes.
mukawwar	مُكَوَّرْ	mukawwar			Kind of writing style, generally opposed to mabsut, that is more flexible and rounded.
new column	عَمُودْ جَدِيدْ	ʻamūd jadīd	ستون جدید	stun jdid	In multi-column setting, to change to new column before the end of current column.
new recto	صَفْحَة يُمْنَى جَدِيدَة	ṣafḥah yumná jadīdah	آغاز در صفحهٔ فرد	āqāz dr sfhhٔ frd	To start a new heading or something on a odd page.
no-break text	عَدَمْ تَفَكُّكْ النَّصْ، نَصْ دُونَ اِنْفِكَاكْ	ʻadam tafakkuk al-nnaṣ, naṣ dūna infikāk
nonbreaking hyphen	وَاصِلَة غَيْرْ قَاسِمَة	wāṣilah ghayr qāsimah
nonbreaking word space	فَضَاءْ كَلِمَة غَيْرْ قَاسِمْ	faḍā’ kalimah ghayr qāsim
note	مُلَاحَظَة	mulāḥaẓah	یادداشت	iāddāšt	Explanatory information added to terms, figures or tables.
number of characters per line	عَدَدْ الأَحْرُف فِي كُلِّ سَطْرْ	ʻadad al-’aḥruf fī kulli saṭr	تعداد حروف در خط	t’dād hruf dr xt	Number of characters in a line to specify the length of lines.
number of columns	عَدَدْ الأَعْمِدَة	ʻadad al-’aʻmidah	تعداد ستون‌ها	t’dād stunhā	Number of columns on a page.
numerals	الأَعْدَادْ، الأَرْقَامْ	al-’aʻdād, al-’arqām	اعداد	ā’dād
one em space	مَسَافَة اِمْ وَاحِدَة	masāfat im wāḥidah	فاصلهٔ اِم	fāslhٔ em	Amount of space that is full-width size.
one third em	ثُلُثْ اِمْ	thuluth im	یک‌سوم اِم	iksum em	One third of the full-width size.
one third em space	مَسَافَة ثُلُثْ اِمْ	masāfat thuluth im	فاصلهٔ یک‌سوم اِم	fāslhٔ yksum em	Amount of space that is one third size of em space.
opening brackets	فَتْحْ قَوْسَيْنْ	fatḥ qawsayn	کروشه باز	kruše bāz
optical size	حَجْمْ بَصَرِي	ḥajm baṣarī
optical spacing	تَبَاعُدْ بَصَرِي	tabāʻud baṣarī
orientation	تَوَجُّهْ	tawajjuh	جهت	jht
ornament	زَخْرَفَة	zakhrafah	تزئینی	tz’ini
outdent	إِلْغَاءْ التَّأخِيرْ، إِلْغَاءْ الإِزَاحَة	ilghā’ al-tta’khīr, ilghā’ al-’izāḥah
overhang	عبء	ʻib’
overrun	تَجَاوُزْ، اِجْتِيَاحْ	tajāwuz, ijtīāḥ
page	صَفْحَة	ṣafḥah	صفحه	sfhh	A side of a sheet of paper in a written work such as a book.
page break	فَاصِلْ صَفْحَة	fāṣil ṣafḥah			To end a page even if it is not full and to start a new page with the next paragraph, a new heading and so on.
page format	شَكْلْ الصَّفْحَة	shakl al-ṣṣafḥah	شکل‌بندی صفحه	šklbndi sfhh	The layout and presentation of a page with text, graphics and other elements for a publication such as a book.
page number	رَقْمْ الصَّفْحَة	raqm al-ṣṣafḥah	شمارهٔ صفحه	šmārhٔ sfhh	A sequential number to indicate the order of pages in a publication.
pagination	تَرْقِيمْ الصَّفَحَاتْ	tarqīm al-ṣṣafaḥāt	صفحه‌شماری	sfhhšmāri
paragraph	فَقْرَة	faqrah	پاراگراف	pārāɡrāf	A group of sentences to be processed for line composition. A paragraph consists of one or more lines.
paragraph break	اِنْقِطَاعْ الفَقْرَة، كَسْرْ الفَقْرَة	inqiṭāʻ al-faqrah, kasr al-faqrah	شکستن پاراگراف	škstn pārāɡrāf	To start a new line to indicate a new paragraph.
paragraph format	تَنْسِيقْ الفَقْرَة	tansīq al-faqrah	شکل‌بندی پاراگراف	šklbndi pārāɡrāf	A format of a paragraph, as in line head indent or line end indent.
paragraph indent	هَامِشْ الفَقْرَة، المَسَافَة البَادِئَة لِلْفَقْرَة	hāmish al-faqrah, al-masāfah al-bādi’ah lilfaqrah	تورفتگی پاراگراف	turftɡi pārāɡrāf
parenthesis	أَقْوَاسْ	aqwās	پرانتز	prāntz
period	نُقْطَة	nuqṭah	نقطه	nqth
pixel	بكسل، بيكسل	biksl, bīksil	پیکسل	piksl
point	نُقْطَة	nuqṭah	نقطه	nqth	A measurement unit of character size. 1 point is equal to 0.3514mm (see JIS Z 8305). There is another unit to measure character sizes called Q, where 1Q is equivalent to 0.25mm.
polyglot	مُتَعَدِّدْ اللُغَاتْ	mutaʻaddid al-lughāt
printing types	أَنْوَاعْ الطِّبَاعَة	anwāʻ al-ṭṭibāʻah			Movable type used for letterpress printing.
proportional	مُتَنَاسِبٌ	mutanāsibun			A characteristic of a font where character advance is different per glyph.
proportional fonts	الخُطُوطْ المُتَنَاسِبَة	al-khuṭūṭ al-mutanāsibah
punctuation marks	عَلَامَاتْ التَّرْقِيمْ	ʻalāmāt al-ttarqīm			A general term referring to the symbols used in text composition to help make the meaning of text clearer, as in commas, full stops, question marks, brackets, diereses and so on.
quad	رُبَاعِيَّة	rubāʻīyah
quarter em	رُبْعْ اِمْ	rubʻ im	رُبع اِم	rob’ em	Quarter size of full-width.
quarter em space	مَسَافَة رُبْعْ اِمْ	masāfat rubʻ im	فاصلهٔ رُبع اِم	fāslhٔ rob’ em	Amount of space that is a quarter of an em space in size.
quarter em width	عُرْضْ رُبْعْ اِمْ	ʻurḍ rubʻ im	پهنای رُبع اِم	phnāy rob’ em	Character frame which has a character advance of a quarter em.
question mark	عَلَامَة اِسْتِفْهَامْ	ʻalāmat istifhām	علامت سوال	’lāmt suāl
quotation	اِقْتِبَاسْ	iqtibās			Excerps from other published works.
rag	خَرَقَة؟	kharaqah
reference marks	العَلَامَاتْ المَرْجِعِيَّة	al-ʻalāmāt al-marjiʻīyah			A symbol or short run of text attached to a specific part of text, to which notes are provided followed by the corresponding marks.
reference number	الرَّقْمْ المَرْجِعِي	al-rraqm al-marjiʻī
reverse pagination	تَرْقِيمْ الصَّفَحَاتْ عَكْسِي	tarqīm al-ṣṣafaḥāt ʻaksī			Numbering pages of a book backwards.
reversed type	نَوْعٌ عَكْسْ	nawʻun ʻaks
river	نَهْرْ	nahr			Optical path of white space that sometimes occurs when word spaces in successive lines of type occur immediately below each other and continue for several lines.
river of white
Roman numerals	الأَرْقَامْ الرُّومَانِيَّة	al-’arqām al-rrūmānīyah	اعداد رومی	ā’dād rumi	Numerals represented by upper case or lower case of Latin letters.
romanization	الكِتَابَة بِالحُرُوفِ اللَاتِينِيَّة	al-kitābah bilḥurūfi al-lātīnīyah	لاتین‌نویسی	lātinnuysi
rule	قَاعِدَة	qāʻidah
run back	تشغيل مرة أخرى
title mark	عَلَامَةْ عُنْوَانْ	ʻalāmat ʻunwān
run down	الخُطوُطْ العَرِيضَة لِلْمُحْتَوَيَاتْ	al-khuṭwuṭ al-ʻarīḍah lilmuḥtawayāt			In video production, an outline of the contents of a program,
run in	فِي نَفْسِ الخَطْ	fī nafsi al-khaṭ			In typography, any copy—specifically a head—designed to be set in the same line as the text.
run-in heading	عُنْوَانْ بِدُونِ اِنْقِطَاعْ	ʻunwān bidūni inqiṭāʻ			A kind of heading style to continue main text just after the heading without line break.
runaround	فَرَاغْ نَائِبْ عَنْ صُورَة إِيضَاحِيَّة	farāgh nā’ib ʻan ṣūrah īḍāḥīyah			In typography, copy typeset so that it will create a "hole" on the page to fit an illustration
running feet	عُنْوَانْ فِي الجُزْءِ السَّفْلِي مِنْ صَفَحَاتْ مُتَتَالِيَّة	ʻunwān fī al-juz’i al-ssaflī min ṣafaḥāt mutatālīyah			A "heading"—such as a book title, chapter title, or author—that is located at the bottom of consecutive page
running heads	عُنْوَانْ فِي الجُزْءِ العُلْوِي مِنْ صَفَحَاتْ مُتَتَالِيَّة	ʻunwān fī al-juz’i al-ʻulwī min ṣafaḥāt mutatālīyah			A heading—such as a book title, chapter title, or author—that is located at the top of consecutive pages,
runover	تَشْغِيلْ أَكْثَرْ	tashghīlakthar
scale	مِقْيَاسْ، نِطَاقْ	miqyās, niṭāq
script	النَّصْ، الكِتَابَة	al-nnaṣ, al-kitābah
second indenetation	المَسَافَة البَادِئَة الثَّانِيَّة	al-masāfah al-bādi’ah al-ththānīyah
second level heading	عُنْوَانْ المُسْتَوَى الثَّانِي	ʻunwān al-mustawá al-ththānī			Second level and middle size heading between first level heading and third level heading.
semicolon	فَاصِلَة مَنْقُوطَة	fāṣilah manqūṭah	نقطه‌ویرگول	nqthuyrɡul
sentence	جُمْلَة	jumlah	جمله	jmlh
shadda	شَدَّة	shaddah			A tashkil mark indicating gemination of the base consonant.
sideheads	رُؤُوسْ الجَانِبْ	ru’ūs al-jānib
single line alignment method	طَرِيقَة المُحَاذَاة لِسَطْرٍ وَاحِدْ	ṭarīqat al-muḥādhāt lisaṭrin wāḥid			To align a run of text that is shorter than a given line length to designated positions.
single running head method	طَرِيقَة الرَأْسْ بِتَشْغِيلْ وَاحِدْ	ṭarīqat al-ra’s bitashghīl wāḥid			A method that puts running heads only on odd pages.
sinkage	فَرَاغْ عَمُودِي إضَافِي	farāgh ʻamūdī iḍāfī
soft hyphen	وَاصِلَة لَيِّنَة	wāṣilah layyinah
solidus	العَلَامَة المَائِلَة	al-ʻalāmah al-mā’ilah
sorting	التَّرْتِيبْ	al-ttartīb	ترتیب	trtib
space	فَرَاغْ	farāgh	فاصله	fāslh	Amount of space between adjacent characters or lines. It also refers to the blank area between the edges of a hanmen or an illustration and text or other hanmen elements.
spacing	التَّبَاعُدْ	al-ttabāʻud	فاصله‌گذاری	fāslhɡzāri
spine	العَمُودْ	al-ʻamūd
spread	اِنْتِشَارْ				Any two facing pages when opening a book and the like.
stem	جذع
style	أسلوب، النمط	intishār	شیوه	šivh
style guide	دَلِيلْ النَّمَطْ	dalīl al-nnamaṭ	شیوه‌نامه	šivhnāmh
subheads	العَنَاوِينْ الفَرْعِيَّة	al-ʻanāwīn al-farʻīyah
subscript (inferior)	نَصْ مُنْخَفِضْ (أَسْفَلْ)	naṣṣ munkhafiḍ (’asfal)			Smaller face of characters, attached to the lower right or the lower left of a normal size character.
subtitle	عُنْوَانْ فَرْعِي	ʻunwān farʻī	زیرنویس	zirnuys	Secondary title for headings, subtile.
sukun	سُكُونْ	sukūn			A tashkil mark indicating the lack of a vowel after the consonant to which it is attached.
superior numeral	الرَّقْمْ العُلْوِي	al-rraqm al-ʻulwī
superscript (superior)	نَصْ مُرْتَفِعْ (أَعْلَى)	naṣṣ murtafiʻ (’aʻlá)			Smaller face of characters, attached to the upper right or the upper left of a normal size character.
symbol	رَمْزْ	ramz
tab	عَلَامَة التَّبْوِيبْ	ʻalāmat al-ttabwīb
tab setting	وَضْعْ عَلَامَة التَّبْوِيبْ	waḍʻ ʻalāmat al-ttabwīb			A method of line composition to align one or more runs of text to designated positions on a line.
table	جَدْوَلْ	jadwal	جدول	jdul	Formatted data consisting of characters or numbers, arranged in cells and sometimes divided by lines, in order to present the data in a way that is easier to understand.
table of contents	جَدْوَلْ المُحْتَوَيَاتْ، الفِهْرِسْ	jadwal al-muḥtawayāt, al-fihris	فهرست مطالب	fhrst mtālb	A list of headings of contents of a book in page order or arranged by subjects, with page numbers on which each section begins.
tail margin	الهاَمِشْ الأَسْفَلْ	al-hamish al-’asfal
tanwin	تَنْوِينْ	tanwīn			(Derived from Noon). Tashkil marks indicating postnasalized or long vowels at the end of a word, and indicated by doubling the sign of one of the harakat diacritics.
tashkil	تَشْكِيلْ	tashkīl			Marks that are added to letters to indicate vocalisation of text or to correct pronunciation. In Unicode these are all combining characters applied to a base character.
text	نَصْ	naṣṣ	متن
text direction	اِتِّجَاهْ النَّصْ	ittijāh al-nnaṣ	جهت متن	jht mtn	Horizontal setting or vertical setting.
thin space	فَرَاغْ رَقِيقْ	farāgh raqīq
third level heading	عُنْوَانْ المُسْتَوَى الثَّالِثْ	ʻunwān al-mustawá al-ththālith			Headings for smallest or minimum unit of main text in books.
top level heading	عُنْوَانْ المُسْتَوَى الأَعْلَى	ʻunwān al-mustawá al-’aʻlá			Headings for largest or muximum unit of main text in books.
tracking	ضَبْطْ تَبَاعُدْ الحُرُوفْ	ḍabṭ tabāʻud al-ḥurūf
transliteration	التَّرْجَمَة الصَّوْتِيَّة	al-ttarjamah al-ṣṣawtīyah	حرف‌نویسی	hrfnuysi
trim size	حَجْمْ التَّقْلِيمْ، حَجْمْ القَصْ	ḥajm al-ttaqlīm, ḥajm al-qaṣṣi			Dimensions of a full page in a publication, including margins.
type page	جُزْءُ الصَّفْحَة الخَاصْ بِالكِتَابَة	juz’u al-ṣṣafḥah al-khāṣ bilkitābah			The portion of a page within the prescribed margins where type, graphics, and other page elements can be added
type size	حَجْمْ الحَرْفْ بِالنُّقْطَة	ḥajm al-ḥarf bilnnuqṭahu
type styles	أنماط الكتابة				The measure of the height of the characters of a font, measured in points.
type-picking	نوع قطف		انتخاب فونت	āntxāb funt	To select metal type for characters needed to print a manuscript. (Metal type is stored in a type case, but because the number of Japanese characters is very large, an extra operation was invented that involves collecting type in a so-called 'bunsen box' before typesetting a manuscript using a composing stick.)
typeface	مِحْرَفْ	miḥraf	فونت، قلم	funt, qlm	A set of letters or symbols, which are designed to have coherent patterns to be used for printing or rendering to a computer screen.
typesetting	تَنْضِيدْ، تَنْضِيدْ الحُرُوفْ الْمَطْبَعِيَّة	tanḍīd, tanḍīd al-ḥurūf al-maṭbaʻīyah	حروفچینی	hrufčini
typography	طِبَاعَة الحُرُوفْ، أُسْلُوبْ الطِّبَاعَة	ṭibāʻat al-ḥurūf,uslūb al-ṭṭibāʻah	تایپوگرافی	tāypuɡrāfi
unbreakable characters rule	قَاعِدَة أَحْرُفْ غَيْرْ قَابِلَة لِلْكسْرْ	qāʻidat aḥruf ghayr qābilah lilksr			A line breaking rule that prohibits breaking a line between consecutive dashes or leaders, or between other specific combinations of characters.
underline	تَسْطِيرْ مِنْ تَحْتْ	tasṭīr min taḥt			A line drawn under a character or a run of text in horizontal writing mode.
unicameral	أُحَادِى المَجْلِسْ	uḥādī al-majlis
Unicode	يُونِيكُودْ	yūnīkūd	یونی‌کُد	ivnikod
vertical writing mode	وَضْعْ الكِتَابَة العَمُودِي	waḍʻ al-kitābah al-ʻamūdī	حالت نوشتار عمودی	hālt nuštār amudi	The process or the result of arranging characters on a line from top to bottom, of lines on a page from right to left, and/or of columns on a page from top to bottom.
volume	حَجْمْ	ḥajm	جلد	jld
weight	ثِقَلْ	thiqal			A measurement of the thickness of fonts.
Western alphabet	الأَبَجَدِيَّة الغَرْبِيَّة	al-’abajadīyah al-gharbīyah
Western languages	اللُغَاتْ الغَرْبِيَّة	al-lughāt al-gharbīyah
widow	أَرْمَلَة	armalah			The term in Western text layout to describe that the last line of a paragraph with only a few words appears at the top of a new page or a column.
widow adjustment	تَعْدِيلْ أَرْمَلَة	taʻdīl armalah			A method of line composition to adjust lines in a paragraph so that the last line consists of more than a given number of characters.
word division	قِسْمْ كَلِمَة	qism kalimah
word space	فَرَاغْ بَيْنَ الكَلِمَاتْ	farāgh bayna al-kalimāt
x-height	اِرْتِفَاعْ الحَرْفْ إِكْسْ	irtifāʻ al-ḥarf iks

Introduction

Contributors

About this document

Gap analysis

Other related resources

Language scope

Standard Arabic language

Persian language

Text direction

Writing mode

Vertical text

Arabic embedded in vertically orientated text

Upright vertical Arabic text

Bidirectional text

The Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm

Glyph shaping & positioning

Fonts & font styles

The Islamic manuscript tradition

Origins

Writing Styles

Context-based shaping & positioning

Multi-level baselines

Multi-context joining

Words as groups of letters

Vertical joining

The so-called teeth letters.

Ligatures

Diacritics

Positioning diacritics relative to base characters

Cursive text

Joining Forms

Joining Categories

Joining Rules

Joining Control

Disjoining Enforcement

Joining Enforcement

Joining-Disjoining Enforcement

Context-Based Joining

Joining Segments

Closed Joining Segments

Open Joining Segments

Non-Joining Characters

Special requirements when dealing with cursive glyphs

Joining and Intra-Word Spaces

Transparency

Text border

Styling individual letters

Typographic units

Characters & encoding

Grapheme/word segmentation & selection

Punctuation & inline features

Data formats & numbers

Preferred Terminology

Families of Numerals

Formatting of Numerals

Arabic number in other uses

Line & paragraph layout

Line breaking & hyphenation

Text alignment & justification

Adjusting Inter-Word Spaces

Adjusting Intra-Word Spaces

Alternative Shapes

Ligatures

Kashida

Tatweel

Combination of the Mechanisms

Text spacing

Baselines, line height, etc.

Lists, counters, etc.

Characters

Alphabetical characters

Diacritics

Numeral characters

Punctuation and symbols

Control characters

Glossary