Two major figures in the field of non-latin typefaces teamed up for this stunning lecture. Onur Yazıcıgi – currently living in Istanbul – who specializes in Ottoman metal type production of the 19th century. And from Amsterdam: Tomas Milo, who is a partner at DecoType, a team that has been working on Arabic script technology since 1982.

In their presentation they reflect on cultural, historical and political contexts which contributed to what they call »the essence of Arabic script«, which »is to be found not in calligraphy, but in script grammar. Calligraphy refers to the quality of script, script grammar to the structure of script.«

In their historical excursion they succeed in spanning an amazingly wide arc from the past to modern computer technology.