the pathology of spatial systems in persian typefaces

abstract nowadays, with the partial achievement of the global village together with the hegemonic role based on western technology, the culture and of course the style of writing of developing countries (like our own), are at risk of being threatened. in order to maintain their style of writing, these countries must analyze their style and with the help of pathology and by keeping it up to date, try to generalize and adapt it to contemporary standards. different types of writing, by considering the tools which are used in creating them, can be divided into two categories, “handwriting” and “type”. first one is being made by human’s hand, its most prominent type is “calligraphy” in which, beauty is it`s most important pillar. but the writing which is created through using electrical or mechanical tools is called “type” and its different visual sorts is called ”typeface”. in the creation of a typeface, several factors are involved and each of them partly affects its aesthetic and performance quality. how spatial systems are applied in typeface, is one of the most important of these factors which directly affect creation of a required typeface in terms of performance and aesthetic. this article, the aim of which is the pathology of the persian typefaces, uses a descriptive-analytical approach. to do so, firstly, spatial systems of the vertical and horizontal axes and their subdivisions have been defined; then their function in different types of persian typefaces (text, title and decorative) has been comparatively analyzed by employing the two measures of the principles and rules of islamic-iranian calligraphy and the principles of western typography. the performance of factors like griding line and leading in spatial system of vertical axe and  performance of factors like kerning, tracking and word spacing in spatial system of horizontal axe have been under pathology and analyzed. structural and illustrative problems are those which emerge in this realm. the problems related to griding line typefaces have been noticed in locating and the number of base lines, in which locating problem is structural and the problem related to number of griding lines is illustrative, and both can be solved by adaptation with principles of latin typography. common problems in leading and word spacing systems are structural and to reform them the use of the principles and rules of islamic-iranian calligraphy is beneficiary. common problems in cornering and tracking are also structural but to reform them, a style which is between both areas and which consists of common rules in both measures should be chosen. results shows in order to improve the spatial systems’ function and solving the above mentioned problems, the mere adaptation with either the principles and rules of islamic-iranian calligraphy or the principles of the design of western typography does not suffice but for this purpose, the designer must try to design letters and define the spatial systems by both the knowledge of the above principles and by employing them simultaneously.