The typography industry is a USD 13 Million industry where illegal downloads and usage of fonts deprive typographers of valuable income. One of them is a leading Arabic Typographer, Ibrahim Hamdi, who is now diagnosed with Keratoconus and is rapidly losing his eyesight. While his fonts have been downloaded by many, he's never received any of the profits, that could have been pivotal in funding his surgery.

We launched 'Zael, the Disappearing'. A font that loses clarity as its creator loses his eyesight.

An entire type family that becomes less and less readable depicting the declining stages of Ibrahim's eyesight.

In the Arab world, there are only a handful of Arabic Typographers. And Ibrahim Hamdi is one of the greatest. He has been commissioned by global entities like Grand Theft Auto, Doom, Lays Arabia, etc. Today, as he is losing his eyesight, it became increasingly important to open the industry's eyes to the problem of illegal downloads and help typographers like Ibrahim get their rightful income.

In the typography industry, downloading illegal Arabic fonts results in millions of dollars of losses.

A painful reality for typographers like Ibrahim, who also happens to be losing his eyesight due to a condition called Keratoconus. Preventing him from contributing to the craft he loves and accessing the medical treatment he deserves.

Millions of downloads

None of the profits

One fading hope

Protype (protype.studio), an independent type foundry, wanted to bring this issue to the industry and help typographers get the rightful income they deserve.

The typography behind this project came to life in 2 parts.

First, the design of the font Zael. Working with Ibrahim's Opthalmologist,

we first understood the declining stages of his eyesight. And based on that

we created the entire Zael type family. Every Haraf, Tashqeeleh, Noqta

and Kashida perfectly crafted.

The second part was to code each degraded version of the font

into the font update which was then sent to those who downloaded the font illegally.

So with each update, font users witnessed the declining stages of Ibrahim's eyesight.

The worse his eyesight, the more degraded the font became.

In the font file, we bundled a message from Ibrahim explaining the consequences

of downloading illegal fonts.