Processing the Qur’anic Text

The Digital Processing and the Implementation of the Aesthetic Improvements on the Font of al-Madinah al-Nabawiyyah Musḥaf in the Narration of Hafs from 'Asim:

It is one of the pioneering projects in King Fahd Glorious Qur’an Printing Complex. It is the first project of its kind across the world in terms of serving the Glorious Qur'an and its sciences. It aims to process the Font of al-Madinah al-Nabawiyyah Musḥaf printed in 1422 AH, in order to produce high quality font by processing and improving curves of the little parts of the Uthmanic Script used in the handwritten font, via advanced computer programs prepared for this purpose. Moreover, the quality of decoration would be improved in terms of the marks of Juz’, Hizb and marks of numbers used in the font, which would help to show the handwritten font with high quality.

The most important features of the digital processing:

A- Scholarly:

• Improving the positions of some of stopping signs and diacritical marks to appear in the accurate places of each mark and diacritic.
• Improving the form of consecutive nunation in the accusative case.
• Improving the form of kasr nunation with iqlab.
• Unifying the distances among lines and words of one line.
• Improving the place of the Ayahs’ numbers that appear in the beginning of some lines, so that the number of each Ayah should be in the same line where the last word of the Ayah exists.
• Improving the position of the titles of the Surahs at the end of some pages, so that the name of the Surah and its beginning appear on the same page.
• Observing the number of lines in each page as adopted in al-Madinah al-Nabawiyyah Musḥaf, without moving any Ayah from one page to another.
• This Musḥaf is considered as the basis for producing other Musḥafs according to other Narrations that can be established and downloaded based on the Hafs Narration.

B- Technology:

• - Technology: • The whole work was carried out inside King Fahd Glorious Qur’an Printing Complex by a technical work group specialized in digital processing, with full knowledge of the rules of Arabic calligraphy. The work group was trained for at least six months before commencing the actual processing, to ensure professionalism and high quality in accomplishing the task.
• The digital processing was made for all components of the whole Qur'anic text, in terms of single letter, word, dots, diacritics, etc.
• During the processing, adherence to accurate technical standards to ensure the final work is produced in one format was taken into consideration, despite the multiplicity of technicians working on the project.
• The required aesthetic improvements have been implemented to some words in direct coordination with the calligrapher of the Glorious Qur’an, to ensure the proper composition of the improved words, according to the font rules applied in writing the Musḥaf.
• During the work stages, coordination was also made with the Preparation Unit in the Complex to ensure that all requirements of printing works of all kinds (traditional and digital) are fulfilled. Moreover, a set of tests and fruitful experiments were carried out in this regard.
• The processed text was designed using Vector drawing technology, with a high level of professionalism, which led to the reduction of the files size by a large margin, compared to the method currently used in printing. In addition, there is noticeable improvement in quality that led to saving a lot of time in all stages of preparation for printing.
• The infinite quality that allows to maximize and minimize the font size (without restrictions) in various sizes, a feature that was not available previously.

Other results and benefits of digital processing that contribute to the service of the Glorious Qur’an and its Sciences:

- Clarity and clearness of the font.

- Highlighting the beauty of the font and the splendor of its design and using it in writing.

- The ability to control the minimizing and maximizing without neither restrictions nor technical issues, while maintaining high quality.

- Significantly reducing storage capacity on electronic storage devices.

- The possibility of making use of the processed font in the production of a computer font (identical to the handwriting) of al-Madinah al-Nabawiyyah Musḥaf, Narration of Hafs.

It should be noted here that King Fahd Glorious Qur’an Printing Complex has issued a book entitled: Guide to Technical Works in the King Fahd Glorious Qur’an Printing Complex in Madinah until 1440 AH, which can be checked in order to find out more details related to the works and accomplishments in the technical field achieved by the Complex. The Complex also seeks to achieve more accomplishment to keep pace with the development in this regard, in order to serve the Great Book of Allah, and its various Sciences.