Tholoth: historical Arabic title lettering with source files

Tholoth is a historical Arabic display family from the Arabeyes Khotot project. Its sloping forms and extended strokes make it a candidate for a short cultural heading or calligraphic composition, where you can inspect each word at a generous size.

One upright weight from Arabeyes 2.0

This download supplies the original ae_Tholoth.ttf at weight 400 from the official 2.0 distribution. The file retains its historical internal version string, “Jeddah K.S.A. 10-jun-95”; that string is not the package version. The metadata credits regeneration to Nadim Shaikli and names Alawi Hashim Bafageeh as manufacturer.

The file contains Arabic and Latin characters and ordinary Arabic vowel marks. It does not contain the complete Persian letter set. Connected Arabic and marked phrases were checked with HarfBuzz and in Chrome, but that sample does not establish support for Quranic composition or every renderer.

Give the heading room

Test line spacing before putting a second line below the title. Tall marks and descending strokes need room, and reducing a large heading can change how its details read. For accompanying Latin text, compare the built-in serif letters with a separate face such as Source Serif 4.

Try Rakkas for another expressive title drawing. Use Amiri as a contrasting Naskh option for longer paragraphs. Explore Thuluth-style Arabic fonts and fonts for calligraphic design without treating a font as a replacement for manually composed calligraphy.

License, source and embedding flag

The GPL version 2 with a font embedding exception allows use and redistribution under its conditions; embedding alone does not place your document under the GPL. The ZIP includes the original TTF, corresponding FontForge SFD, official build driver, README, COPYING and the combined license notices, including the Free UCS Latin attribution.

The original fsType value is 4, “Preview & Print”. Some applications may restrict embedding despite the license. This flag is preserved unchanged.

See the official Arabeyes 2.0 archive and FontForge source revision. Prepare your phrase with the Arabic keyboard and follow the font installation guide.