Simplification of the Arabic Script: Three Different Approaches and their Implementations

摘要

In 1945, the Cairo Academy for the Arabic Language opened a contest to find the best project for simplification of the Arabic writing system. They received about 200 replies. We have chosen three of these projects (a preliminary project by an Academy subcommitee, and projects by Ahmed Lakhdar-Ghazal and Yahya Boutemene) and have implemented them via the Ω typesetting system. In this paper we describe and discuss these projects and their implementations. A text sample is presented both in simplified and in regular form. Showing new aspects of the Arabic script, these systems can be useful for Arabic typesetting, as well as in providing new directions for Arabic type design.