midad

# مداد **محرر مفتوح المصدر للخط العربي.** تكتب العبارة، فيرسمها المحرك بخط حقيقي، ثم تختار لكل حرف شكله، وتمدّ الوصلات، وتحرّك الحروف وتكبّرها وتميلها، وتصدّر النتيجة رسمًا متجهًا (SVG) أو صورة. يعمل في المتصفح وعلى سطح المكتب (ويندوز، ماك، لينكس) بالكود نفسه.

Midad

An open-source editor for Arabic calligraphy. Type a phrase, pick the shape of every letter, stretch joins with kashida, move, scale and slant letters, and export vector artwork. The same engine runs in the browser and in the desktop app.

The Midad editor: the meem is selected, its alternate shapes are listed in the panel, and the join between beh and seen is stretched.

What makes it different

A real shaping engine underneath. Every frame is recomputed by HarfRust (the Rust port of HarfBuzz). Alternate shapes are applied inside the shaper, so harakat, kerning and joins are always positioned for the letter you see.
Documents store decisions, not drawings. A .midad file is the text plus the calligrapher’s choices. Edit the text and your choices follow.
Calligraphic units. Offsets and elongations are shown in nuqat (rhombic pen dots), with the dot ladder drawn next to each line.
Styles are open data. A style is an OFL font plus a style.toml that calligraphers can edit: options, kashida rules, alternates.

Quick start

# prerequisites: Rust (stable), Node 20+, wasm-bindgen-cli 0.2.129
cargo install wasm-bindgen-cli --version 0.2.129 --locked
npm ci
npm run build:wasm
npm run dev            # → http://localhost:5173

Desktop: npm run desktop:dev (needs the Tauri prerequisites).

Command line:

cargo run -p midad-cli -- render -s styles/naskh-amiri -t "بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم" -o basmala.svg

Repository

Path
`crates/midad-core`	The engine (Rust): shaping, alternates, kashida, documents, SVG export
`crates/midad-wasm`	WebAssembly bindings
`crates/midad-cli`	`midad` command-line tool
`apps/web`	Editor UI (React + TypeScript + Vite)
`apps/desktop`	Desktop app (Tauri 2)
`styles/`	Style packages (`naskh-amiri`)
`tools/`	Style compiler (Python + fontTools)
`docs/`	Documentation

Documentation

Architecture — how the engine works and why
Development — setup, commands, testing, releases
Style packages — style.toml reference, adding a style
Document format — the .midad file
Roadmap — milestones and known limitations
Contributing · دليل الخطاطين

License

Code: MIT OR Apache-2.0, at your option (LICENSE-MIT, LICENSE-APACHE).
Fonts in styles/: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (see each style’s OFL.txt). The Naskh style is built on Amiri by Khaled Hosny and Sebastian Kosch.
Your artwork is yours. Anything you compose and export with Midad belongs to you, with no obligation of any kind — the OFL explicitly allows using the fonts in documents and images.