Kashida or Kasheeda ( fa, کشیده; "extended", "stretched", "lengthened") is a type of justification in the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

language and in some descendant cursive scripts. In contrast to white-space justification, which increases the length of a line of text by expanding spaces between

words A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...

or individual

letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...

, kasheeda creates justification by elongating characters at certain points. Kasheeda justification can be combined with white-space justification. The analog in European (Latin-based) typography (expanding or contracting letters to improve spacing) is sometimes called ''expansion'', and falls within

microtypography Microtypography is a range of methods for improving the readability and appearance of text, especially justified text. The methods reduce the appearance of large interword spaces and create edges to the text that appear more even. Microtypograp ...

. Kasheeda is considerably easier and more flexible, however, because Arabic-Persian scripts feature prominent horizontal strokes, whose lengths are accordingly flexible. For example, ' and ' with and without kasheeda may look like the following: Kasheeda can also refer to a character that represents this elongation (ـ) – also known as tatweel or taṭwīl ( ''taṭwīl'') – or to one of a set of glyphs of varying lengths that implement this elongation in a font. The

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

standard assigns code point U+0640 as ''Arabic Tatweel''. The kasheeda can take a subtle downward curvature in some calligraphic styles and handwriting. However, the curvilinear stroke is not feasible for most basic fonts, which merely use a completely flat

underscore An underscore, ; also called an underline, low line, or low dash; is a line drawn under a segment of text. In proofreading, underscoring is a convention that says "set this text in italic type", traditionally used on manuscript or typescript a ...

-like stroke for kashida. In addition to letter spacing and justification, calligraphers also use kasheeda for emphasis and as book or chapter titles. In modern Arabic mathematical notation, kasheeda appears in some operation symbols that must stretch to accommodate associated contents above or below. Kasheeda generally only appears in one word per line, and one letter per word. Furthermore, experts recommend kasheeda only between certain combinations of letters (typically those that cannot form a

ligature Ligature may refer to: * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture used to shut off a blood vessel or other anatomical structure ** Ligature (orthodontic), used in dentistry * Ligature (music), an element of musical notation used especially in the me ...

). Some calligraphers who were paid by the page used an inordinate number of kasheeda to stretch content over more pages.Arabic text justification
Dept. of Computer Science, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh The branding of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

applies kasheeda to

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern I ...

, connecting the bottom of the "t" and the second "a" in the host country's name.

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Justifying Text using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in Internet Explorer 5.5
Arabic punctuation and symbols Typography {{writingsystem-stub

See also

References

External links