New Release

Boutros Sign The New Bilingual Signage Typeface

, by Peter McCree

Designing signage is a science in itself. In long distance reading, the human eye blurs the shapes being seen, making them appear somewhat fuzzy. As a result, certain measures need to be taken when designing signage.

In designing Latin signage, the most important starting point is to ensure that all inherent complexity is removed, simplifying the character shapes as much as possible to ensure maximum legibility. It goes without saying, therefore, that signage typefaces must be sans-serif. They should also not be of a geometrical design in order to avoid misreading similarly looking characters. Each letterform should be seen as a whole, solid form and not as a constructed item of straight and rounded units.

Similar principles apply in the design of Arabic signage typefaces. The most widely used – and sadly the most pirated - typeface for bilingual (Arabic and Latin) signage and wayfinding around the world is Boutros Advertisers Naskh. It was designed in 1977 by Mourad and Arlette Boutros in collaboration with Letraset.
You can see Boutros Advertisers Naskh in action on bilingual signage throughout the Arabic-speaking world, where it is used in offices and hospitals; on motorway signs; and in commercial spaces such as Dubai and Beirut International Airports.
This versatile typeface has many other applications. The light and medium weights are suitable for body text. The other weights are suitable for headlines and sub-headings. The outline, shadow and inline versions can be used to give extra decoration to all types of communication materials.

The newly released typeface Boutros Sign 1 was designed based on the latest available technology which was not available in 1977 in the aim to replace the existing Boutros Advertisers Naskh with an improved bilingual typeface. BoutrosSign was designed by two experts each in its field Arlette Boutros and Eva Masoura in the Arabic & Latin script to be in perfect harmony including both culture characteristics for visual identity and legibility for years to come.

If you wish to buy the font family click here.