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IranNastaliq

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki


IranNastaliq
The phrase "Welcome to Wikipedia" in Persian, rendered in IranNastaliq Version 3.09
Style Perso-Arabic (Nastaliq style)
Designer Hossein Zahedi
Script Perso-Arabic
Languages Persian, Arabic
License OFL-1.1 (Versions 1–2, according to a 2022 GitHub release)
Proprietary license (Version 3.09)
Release dates First version: November 2007
Version 2: May 22, 2012
Version 3: early 2022
Latest: 3.09 (July 2024)
Format TrueType (SFNT)

IranNastaliq (Persian: ایران نستعلیق) is a Perso-Arabic digital typeface that reproduces the Nastaliq calligraphic style in computing environments. Designed by Iranian type designer Hossein Zahedi, it supports the Persian and Arabic languages. Iran's Supreme Council of Information Dissemination (Persian: Showra-ye Aali-ye Ettela-Resani, شورای عالی اطلاع‌رسانی) commissioned and financed the font under TASMA (Persian: طرح تسما), a national program for producing and organizing Iran's electronic content.[1] It uses OpenType features to render Nastaliq's diagonal script on standard operating systems and applications, rather than through specialized typesetting software.[2]

History

According to Behrouz Minaei, the council's technical deputy, no existing software could reliably render Nastaliq's complex, height-varying letterforms on a standard computer.[1][3][4]

Dadevarzan-e Hamoon (شرکت داده‌ورزان هامون), the company that also produces the Parwin word processor, engineered the font in consultation with calligraphy experts to manage Nastaliq's varying baseline heights, and released Version 1 as freeware through the council's portal in November 2007.[1][2][3] It was downloaded roughly 400,000 times over the following years.[5][4]

Rendering error in the word "قشقایی", rendered using IranNastaliq font in version 3.09

Version 1 lacked the ability to elongate letters (kashida) and had some incompatibilities with Unicode rendering.[6][4] The council addressed these shortcomings with Version 2, released in May 2012 after formal vetting and approval from Persian calligrapher Amir-Ahmad Falsafi.[5][4][7] No new version was documented in the available sources for nearly a decade: the council was dissolved and Dadevarzan-e Hamoon ceased operating.[3] This update represented a major technical refinement of the font, focusing on typography balance, spatial accuracy, and support for modern software environments.[8]

According to the font's production team, Hossein Zahedi and Hossein Ghasemi-rad (production manager of the related Parwin word-processing software) revived the project independently in the Iranian calendar year 1400 (which began in March 2021). The producers state that, nearly ten years after the release of Version 2, they spent several months reviewing and redesigning the typeface before releasing Version 3 in Bahman 1400 (roughly January–February 2022). The new edition was commercially licensed and distributed through IranNastaliq.ir and ParwinFont. According to the producers, the redesign introduced corrections based on principles of calligraphy and writing, including changes to the geometric forms of letters, spacing between them, and the placement of dots and diacritics. They also state that the font was adapted for compatibility with newer versions of text-editing and graphics software, including Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator.[3][9][10] A GitHub repository distributing the older versions, uploaded in 2022, describes them as licensed under the SIL Open Font License (OFL-1.1) and attributes the release to the Information Technology Organization of Iran (ITO); this attribution has not been independently confirmed.[11] Zahedi has continued to release updates to Version 3, including Version 3.09, published in July 2024 (Tir 1403 in the Iranian calendar) and technically identified in the font metadata as Ver. 3.09 [IranNastaliq.ir] 20240721.[12]

Version history

Version Release Development and changes
1 November 2007 Initial release. The font was developed by Dadevarzan-e Hamoon with support from Iran's Supreme Council of Information Dissemination as part of the TASMA program. It was distributed as freeware through the council's portal and was intended to make Nastaliq typesetting possible in ordinary computer environments.[1]
2 May 22, 2012 Revised release addressing shortcomings in the first version, including problems with Unicode rendering and the lack of satisfactory kashida elongation. The release underwent formal vetting and was approved by Persian calligrapher Amir-Ahmad Falsafi.[4][5]
3 2022 After nearly a decade without development, Hossein Zahedi and Hossein Ghasemi-rad revived the project independently and financed its development themselves. The version introduced revisions to the letterforms, spacing, placement of dots and diacritics, and compatibility with newer text-editing and graphics software. It was released as a commercially licensed font through IranNastaliq.ir and ParwinFont.[3]
3.09 July 2024 A subsequent revision of Version 3. According to the producers, the release incorporated more than 100 corrections involving the forms of elongations (kashidas), their connections to following letters, and connected letterforms in certain combinations.[8][12]

Design and typography

The sentence هفته خوبی داشته باشید when rendered with IranNastaliq font above, and Jameel Noori Nastaleeq

Nastaliq script cascades diagonally from top right to bottom left, unlike horizontal scripts such as Latin or Arabic Naskh, and its letterforms change shape depending on context.[2][13] Before OpenType support existed, typesetting Nastaliq relied on specialized software such as Kelk.[2] Complex Nastaliq layouts can still produce rendering errors, such as broken or misaligned glyph sequences—which occur when a font's OpenType instructions do not fully account for a given letter combination. HarfBuzz's source code notes that IranNastaliq relies heavily on the Contextual Swash (cswh) feature to repair such sequences; the engine nonetheless leaves cswh disabled by default, following Windows 8's own default, so the fix does not run automatically when the font is shaped with HarfBuzz.[14]

Because IranNastaliq is a Unicode-compliant OpenType font, it works directly in standard text editors such as Microsoft Word and graphic design applications such as Photoshop and CorelDRAW, without requiring dedicated Nastaliq typesetting software.[15][2] It also appears in academic typesetting: the LaTeX package XePersian uses it as the worked example in its documentation for defining a custom Nastaliq font with the \defpersianfont command.[16][17]

IranNastaliq was designed around the Nastaliq conventions favored in Iran, a regional style distinct from the Nastaliq traditions used for Urdu typesetting; Nastaliq has a prominent place in Iranian calligraphic tradition, whereas in Pakistan and parts of India it is used extensively for Urdu specifically.[2][13]

Text justification and Kashida

The word "قشقایی" With Kashida - rendered using IranNastaliq font in version 3.09

As in other Arabic-script typefaces, IranNastaliq justifies text by elongating certain letters (Kashida) rather than by expanding the spaces between words.[18] Developers of the HarfBuzz text-shaping engine have noted that Version 1 of the font could produce broken kashida elongations in some letter combinations; a 2018 HarfBuzz bug report found Version 2 handled kashida insertion better, though a contributor still considered the font unsafe to assume it supported automatic kashida placement.[6]

Rendering and engine support

IranNastaliq's Nastaliq letterforms require an unusually large number of OpenType lookup tables, making the font comparatively demanding to shape; HarfBuzz maintainer Behdad Esfahbod cited it alongside the Arabic typeface Amiri and several Indic fonts as one of the "heavy" fonts motivating a 2017 effort to speed up HarfBuzz through vectorized lookups.[19] A 2012 comparative survey of Nasta'liq typesetting software reported that the font's file size and glyph count each ran to roughly seventeen and nineteen times those of a typical Persian font, respectively, at 1,048 KB and 4,200 glyphs against a baseline of around 60 KB and 220 glyphs.[2] The font has also directly shaped HarfBuzz's Arabic-shaping code: testing an early version of the engine against IranNastaliq in 2010, Esfahbod found its ligature for the word "Allah" broke when composition (ccmp) lookups ran too late in the pipeline, leading him to split Arabic shaping into ordered stages.[20] The engine still pauses between the Required Ligatures (rlig) and Contextual Alternates (calt) features specifically to keep IranNastaliq's Allah ligature forming correctly, according to a comment retained in its source code.[14]

Web integration

The word حرف‌باز in the HarfBuzz logo is rendered in IranNastaliq

To expand the availability of IranNastaliq across web, desktop, and mobile platforms, developer Mohammad Saleh Souzanchi published a modified web-optimized distribution based on the original open-source desktop font produced by scict.ir and designed by Hossein Zahedi.[21] According to the repository's documentation, the original version lacked font hinting and web format support; the repository's version 1 release introduced font hinting alongside WOFF support, and version 2 added WOFF2 support.[21] Additionally, the HarfBuzz text-shaping engine renders the word حرف‌باز ("harf-baz") in its official logo using IranNastaliq.[22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "فونت نستعلیق دانلود کنید". Hamshahri Online (in فارسی). November 16, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Kermaninejad, Farzan (2012). "Usage of Nasta'liq in the Modern Publications" (PDF). Typography Day. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "تاریخچه فونت ایران نستعلیق" [History of the IranNastaliq font]. IranNastaliq.ir (in فارسی). Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "نسخه جديد فونت نستعليق عرضه شد". IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) (in فارسی). May 22, 2012. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "نسخه جدید فونت نستعلیق با رفع اشکالات گذشته عرضه شد". Mehr News Agency (in فارسی). May 22, 2012. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Logic or public API to check if a font supports adding Kashida · Issue #1503". GitHub – HarfBuzz. December 21, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  7. ↑ "نسخه جدید فونت نستعلیق را دریافت کنید". Lisna (in فارسی). May 2012. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "فونت نستعلیق نسخه 3.09" [Nastaliq Font Version 3.09]. ParwinFont (in فارسی). Retrieved August 30, 2024.
  9. ↑ "تیم تولید و طراحی ایران نستعلیق 3" [The production and design team of IranNastaliq 3]. IranNastaliq.ir (in فارسی). Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  10. ↑ "ایران نستعلیق 3" [IranNastaliq 3]. IranNastaliq.ir (in فارسی). Retrieved August 30, 2024.
  11. ↑ "farsi-fonts/fonts-irannastaliq". GitHub. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "فونت ایران نستعلیق 3/09" [IranNastaliq Font 3/09]. IranNastaliq.ir (in فارسی). Retrieved August 30, 2024.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Izadpanah, Borna (2025). "Simplifying Urdu: Nasta'liq Types for Mechanical Composition and the Forces of Colonization, Monopolization, and Ownership". Book History. Project MUSE. 28 (1): 58–122. doi:10.1353/bh.2025.a959456. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "hb-ot-shaper-arabic.cc". GitHub – HarfBuzz. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  15. ↑ "IranNastaliq Official Website" (in فارسی). Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  16. ↑ "xepersian – Persian (Farsi) support for XeLaTeX". CTAN. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  17. ↑ "User documentation for the XePersian package" (PDF). CTAN. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  18. ↑ Sakkal, Mamoun (November 2010). "Issues in Arabic Typography: Kashidas & Diacritics" (PDF). Sakkal Design. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  19. ↑ "Speedup using vectorization · Issue #566". GitHub - HarfBuzz. October 12, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  20. ↑ Esfahbod, Behdad (November 22, 2010). "On fallback shaping and future directions". harfbuzz mailing list, freedesktop.org. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "font-IranNastaliq README". GitHub. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  22. ↑ "HarfBuzz text shaping engine". GitHub. Retrieved May 22, 2024.

External links


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