Nassim is a contemporary typeface for multilingual text-setting. Its lively texture pays tribute to calligraphic heritage. The well balanced rhythm and a vast array of features allow for a wide range of applications, from news, to literature, to scientific publications. Read by millions of people around the globe every day, it does what it does best, delivering content with an authentic voice.
Bridging two contrasting typographic traditions, Arabic and Latin, Nassim achieves balance and harmony without compromising either one. When it was first released, it was an exceptional rendering of Arabic in OpenType – ahead of the curve. The new Pro version challenges existing conventions and defies the limitations of digital Arabic once again.
Designed by: Titus Nemeth
Published: 2011 & 2016
Language support:
Arabic (11 languages)
Latin (119 languages)
Transliterations (7 languages)
Titus Nemeth is a type designer and typographer with specialist expertise in the Arabic script. He works as an independent designer and typographic consultant, building on his substantial experience and research in the field.
His original type designs have won multiple internationally renowned awards and are widely used for complex, cross-cultural, visual communication. Titus’ practice combines the making and the use of type, as he is convinced that both aspects inform each other: ‘the better I understand how type is used, the better I can design for it’.
Titus holds a PhD, and an MA in Typeface Design, from the University of Reading, UK, and a diploma in Graphic Design from Die Graphische in Vienna, Austria. He has taught type design and typography at a number of schools in France, Morocco, Qatar, and the United Kingdom.
Commissioned by the Government of Mauritania to broaden awareness and understanding, and to help promote commerce and tourism, this trilingual, large format, coffee-table book was designed by John Hubbard and published by Ewrks Media Inc. It uses Nassim by Titus Nemeth for Arabic and English and Le Monde Sans by Jean François Porchez for the French.
Following the redesign of the mother-page of the BBC News, BBC Arabic and BBC Persian launched their redesigned websites. These are probably the first, and certainly the biggest websites yet to use webfonts – Arabic webfonts that is. The BBC uses custom versions of Nassim by Titus Nemeth. The typeface was painstakingly optimised for screen and for the web with the help of Thomas Grace (hinting) and Tim Ahrens (webfonts production). The typeface was further redesigned for the BBC Persian. Titus redrew Nassim to give the website a distinctly Iranian look, while maintaining coherence with the BBC-brand visual language. Read more about the process on Rosetta blog.
In 2009, The École Superieure d’Arts et de Design in Amiens organised an exhibition of drawings by the artist Rafael Mahdavi. The accompanying catalogue, showing the eight canvases together with an interview, was designed by ESAD-graduate Lucille Guigon who used Nassim for all texts.
Conceived by Rohan Murty and planned and published by Harvard University Press, the Murty Classical Library of India is a bold project to revive Indian classical literature and make it widely available and accessible. The goal is to publish more than 500 books of classical Indian literature over the course of the next 100 years! The concept and beautiful design of the books was done by Rathna Ramanathan. A range of new Indian types were specially commissioned from Fiona Ross and John Hudson of Tiro Typeworks. The Arabic type used for Persian is Nassim by Titus Nemeth, presented here in the book The History of Akbar. The Latin is Henrik Kubel’s Antwerp.
Share your thoughts on Nassim!