Modern History of Arabic Type: The reforming projects for the Arabic Script

The talk will focus on investigating the twentieth-century history of Arabic type design, where a new tendency of the Arabic writing system started in the Academy of Arabic language in Cairo in 1938. In which, a new form of Arabic script reformation and simplification studies started, to accompany the new technology assisted in propagating the printing industry, due to the under the growing demands for printed matters, which created an atmosphere of modernization and progressive experimentation. The result of this atmosphere of change led to a re-evaluation of the classical Arabic language taking into account its structural, written and visual aspects. The Academy of Arabic language in Cairo decided to initiate a worldwide competition to reform the Arabic writing system to solve its obstacles, about 200 projects were received.