AlQalam Taj Nastaleeq opentype Regular Urdu Font
AlQalam Taj Nastaleeq OpenType Regular Urdu Font
AlQalam Taj Nastaleeq is the first open-source, ligature-based Lahori Nastaleeq font from the Indo-Pak region. It was developed by Syed Abrar Hussain Shakir-ul-Qadree, and its Lahori Nastaleeq ligatures are based on the celebrated calligraphic work of Tajuddin Zarreen.
Font Name: AlQalam Taj Nastaleeq-Regular
OpenType Layout
Font Size: 15.4 MB
This font was officially released on Friday, 9 November 2012, as an important gift to the Urdu community. According to its developer, the project was started to fill a long-standing gap in Urdu typography: the need for a Lahori-style font that could be used freely for personal purposes without commercial restrictions.
In the past, Mirza Jamil Ahmad introduced a major change in Urdu publishing by presenting the ligatures of Noor-e-Nastaleeq through Nuri Kitab. For a long time, those ligatures remained available only on commercial terms and were out of reach for ordinary users. Later, Amjad Hussain Alvi and the Jameel Nastaleeq team introduced them as a free font, which marked another important milestone. Even then, however, the need for a Lahori-style font remained. Around the same time, Feiz Nastaleeq came from India with InPage software. It too was a commercial font, though it is now also available in Unicode form. Still, there was a clear need for a set of Lahori-style ligatures that could be used for private and personal work without any ethical or legal difficulty.
To meet that need, work on this project began three years earlier, drawing inspiration from the ligatures in Ustad Tajuddin Zarreen's Murqqa-e-Zareen. After three years of day-and-night effort, nearly 30,000 ligatures were prepared. For the team, it was a moment of deep satisfaction to present these ligatures to the Urdu community on 9 November 2012, the birth anniversary of Allama Iqbal. It was described as a humble tribute to Hakeem-ul-Ummat, Poet of the East, Allama Muhammad Iqbal.
It is important to note that earlier fonts were designed mainly for commercial use, and free use was restricted. In contrast, the ligatures of AlQalam Taj Nastaleeq may be used freely for personal purposes without fear or restriction. Commercial use, however, is not allowed. All rights are reserved, and permission from the creator is required before using the font with any commercial software. Legal action remains reserved in case of unauthorised use.
The main purpose of this project was to provide these ligatures to the Urdu community. Still, they are being released in font form so they can be used immediately and conveniently. In this test version of AlQalam Taj Nastaleeq, which is being offered free of charge, the kashida feature is not included. However, the character-based version prepared for AlQalam Taj Nastaleeq does include kashida, and glimpses of that can be seen in various samples of the font. Work is still underway to improve the kashida feature further, which is why it has not yet been made available in this release.
Since this is only the first draft of the ligatures, there may still be many shortcomings. Even so, it is hoped that the Urdu community will find the font useful and appealing. Feedback is warmly welcomed. If any ligature can be improved, or if a new ligature should be added, users are encouraged to point it out in the comments. The developers hope to refine AlQalam Taj Nastaleeq further in the light of community suggestions, and they remain grateful for every piece of advice and support.