Getting Arabic, Urdu and Farsi inscriptions right on a headstone

An English inscription survives almost any workflow: a sketch, an email, a cutting file. An Arabic-script inscription often does not. Letters that should join arrive separated, lines read in the wrong direction, and a verse that was correct on the family's phone is wrong on the stone. The failures are predictable, and so are the fixes.

Why connected scripts break

Arabic, Urdu and Farsi are written right to left, and most letters change shape depending on their neighbours. Software has to "shape" the text, choosing the initial, medial, final or isolated form of each letter and joining them. Design and engraving tools that lack proper shaping show the isolated forms in a row, which is unreadable. Copying text between programs can also reverse it, so the first letter ends up on the left.

Choose a typeface made for the script

Each language has typefaces that suit it:

• Arabic is well served by Naskh faces such as Amiri, Scheherazade and Noto Naskh, and by Kufi faces for a more geometric, monumental feel.
• Urdu is traditionally set in Nastaliq, a hanging, calligraphic style. Noto Nastaliq Urdu and Gulzar are two faces designed for it. Setting Urdu in a plain Naskh face is legible but looks foreign to many readers.
• Farsi reads naturally in faces designed with Persian letterforms, such as Vazirmatn, which include the four letters that Arabic lacks.

The studio bundles eight Arabic-script typefaces alongside eight Latin ones, and sets the direction and typeface automatically when you add an Arabic, Urdu or Farsi inscription.

Keep the text as text for as long as possible

Convert to outlines only at the last step, and only in a tool that shaped the text correctly. The editable face SVG exported from the studio keeps the inscription as live text with the fonts embedded, so a fabricator can still correct a spelling, and the full-colour SVG and PDF plan carry the same shaped letterforms as artwork. The engraved STL mesh is generated from the shaped outlines, so the 3D model, the preview and the file the engraver receives all agree.

Mixing languages on one stone

Many families place an Arabic verse or phrase above an English name and dates, sometimes with an Urdu or Farsi epitaph below. Treat each inscription as its own layer with its own typeface, size and alignment. Right-aligned Arabic beside left-aligned English rarely looks settled; centring both is the safest default. Leave more vertical room for Nastaliq than its point size suggests, because its lines hang low.

Proof it with a reader

Before fabrication, show a full-size print or the 3D preview to someone who reads the language, ideally someone who did not type it. Ask them to read it aloud. Check:

1. Every letter joins where it should.
2. Diacritics sit on the correct letters and none were dropped.
3. The verse reference, if shown, is complete and accurate.
4. Names are spelled the way the family spells them, not the way a dictionary does.

If Muslim Serenity Stones & Grave Markers crafts the memorial, the team also advises on script options that meet the cemetery's guidelines. However the stone is made, the goal is the same: the family should be able to stand at the grave and read, without hesitation, the words they chose.