Yara Khoury

Exploring the visual imprint of Arabic typography through letter frequency analysis

November 2, Saturday 15:00 – Salt Galata

This presentation delves into a preliminary study that investigates the visual imprint of Arabic type by analyzing the frequency count of letters in all their variations across a substantial corpus of text. Using custom software, the investigation is initially focusing on three core parameters: (1) the Rule of Similarity (Nizam Al Tashabuh), which emphasizes proportional uniformity among letters; (2) variations in letter heights; and (3) the frequency and positioning of diacritic dots. This study aims to lay the groundwork for a deeper understanding of Arabic script's visual patterns, potentially influencing typographic cues, type design, and readability.

Biography

Yara Khoury Nammour, a designer, educator, and author from Lebanon, is an assistant professor of graphic design at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She leads the Arabic Type Research Unit that focuses on practice-based research. She co-organizes the biennial Mashq conference at AUB that focuses on advancing Arabic type and its typography (mashqconference.org). She authored 'Nasri Khattar: A Modernist Typotect' (Khatt Books, 2014) and previously served as design director at AlMohtaraf design house in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 20 years. Her expertise spans designing Arabic typefaces, bilingual editorial publications, and graphic identities.