Diwan Mishafi Font Wins Prestigious Type Directors Club Award

31 January 2000 PRESS RELEASE

Diwan Mishafi Font Wins Prestigious Type Directors Club Award
At TDC2 2000 (Type Directors Club Type Design Competition 2000) Diwan's Mishafi typeface won a prestigious Certificate of Excellence in Type Design.

Diwan Mishafi is a professional Arabic typeface in the 'Naskh' style designed by the acclaimed Iraqi calligrapher Hamid Al-Saadi. One of the most complex typefaces ever created Diwan Mishafi comprises of more than 3000 different letter forms. The font contains built-in intelligence to format text entered using the typeface to match the correct Arabic calligraphic rules. This typeface was built using Apple Computer Inc.'s ATSUI technology on Macintosh. Diwan has recently produced a version based Opentype and we are distributing it with our Microsoft Windows publishing application al-Nashir al-Maktabi PC.

Diwan Mishafi makes it possible to compose proper Quranic calligraphy with all their shapes, markings and recitation symbols. It is also most suitable to compose traditional text of Hadith and commentary texts in respectable form. Both classic and modern Arabic poetry can be presented by it in clear and elegant formats. Mishafi is also capable of rendering texts in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Kurdish.

TDC2 2000 is an international competition for type design held by the Type Directors Club. The contest was judged by Matthew Carter, Barry Deck, John Hudson and Kathleen Tinkel. Maxim Zhukov chaired the Jury. 102 designers from twenty-four countries participated in the competition. 185 entries competed in five categories: Text designs, Display designs, Text/display type systems, Type superfamilies, and Pi fonts. 18 entries have been chosen by the Jury of TDC2 2000 to receive the Certificates of Excellence in Type Design.

All winning entries will be included in Typography 21, the annual publication of the Type Directors Club, and shown at the TDC Awards Exhibition in New York City, from June through mid-September 2000; they will also be included in the exhibitions touring the United States, Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, Mexico and Australia.

The Type Directors Club is the organization for all people who are devoted to excellence in typography, both in print and on screen. Founded in 1946, today's TDC is involved in all contemporary areas of typography and design and welcomes graphic designers, art directors, editors, multimedia professionals, students, and entrepreneurs -- in advertising, communications, education, marketing and publishing.

Diwan Software Limited specializes in producing high quality publishing solutions world wide. Our products include: al-Nashir al-Sahafi, one of the most popular DTP applications in the Middle East; RSG-Global, a high-end publishing application that can handle any international language; NIS, an internet-based information and publishing system. Diwan also published one of the largest libraries of quality Arabic typefaces.

More information on the Type Directors Club and TDC2 2000 can be found at: http://www.tdc.org/
More information on Diwan Mishafi can be found on: http://www.diwan.com/mishafi/

Press Contact:

Adil Allawi

Technical Director
Diwan Software Ltd
37-39 Peckham Road
London SE5 8UH,UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7 2525 333
Fax: +44 (0)20 7 2525 444
email: info@diwan.com