Traditional Arabic is an Arabic naskh-based typeface first developed by Monotype as Series 589 in the spring of 1956.[1] [2] It featured a system of interlocking sorts to allow for the diacritics to properly display over the letters they modify.[1]
Whereas Linotype's typeface Simplified Arabic or Yakout had become the standard for newspapers, the Traditional Arabic typeface became the preferred for quality book printing.[1]
In the 1970s and 1980s, Compugraphic plagiarized Traditional Arabic as well as Simplified Arabic; they had both become ubiquitous.[1] When the Belgian Agfa-Gevaert Corporation came to control Compugraphics, it licensed the fonts it plagiarized to Microsoft for use in Microsoft Windows.[1]