Katibeh is a bold Qalam writing Urdu/Arabic font with creative letterforms. Various designers plied their efforts to make this font. The Arabic portion is designed by Kourosh Beigpour, whereas Latin characters are assembled by Eduardo Tunni and engineered overall by Lasse Fister. It was released for use in 2015 and is available for free. The font is based on classical Naskh calligraphy and modified according to modern design trends. It has a bold and curved appearance with vertical characters that are a bit longer. Moreover, it has slanted edges and circular sharp terminals, which are the attributes of the Naskh script. A unique factor about this font is it has small brush-made extensions at the end and the start of a few letters, such as “alif”, “daal,” and “noon”, adding a natural Qalam writing feel.
Katibeh features an extensive set of 1,013 characters and 1,188 glyphs, making it highly versatile for various design purposes. The font’s thickness changes irregularly throughout the letterforms, adding a unique and artistic touch. It is a monospaced font, ensuring equal spacing between letters, which enhances its calligraphic appeal. The bold strokes provide good readability, making it suitable for short texts and titles, although it may be challenging to read for longer periods. Katibeh supports a wide range of languages, including Latin, Urdu, Arabic, Farsi, and English, making it ideal for multilingual projects. It is commonly used for announcement posts, headings, children’s books, and art designs. The font supports a variety of Unicode blocks, including Basic Latin, Arabic, and Currency Symbols, offering broad compatibility across different applications.
