The documented history of every Nastaliq typeface — from the 1781 Forms of Herkern metal type to the 2026 open-source wave. 73 confirmed families, 93 documented releases, 174 graded sources and 87 timeline events, with binary forensics on 36 releases and every claim source-cited. rtlfonts.com is not only a font download library — it is a citable research archive of Nastaliq typography.
Family index
Mehr Nastaliq Jali (مہر نستعلیق جلی) — undated, Nasrullah Mehr, Muhammad Zeeshan Nasar, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Mehr Nastaliq Khafi (مہر نستعلیق خفی) — undated, Nasrullah Mehr, Muhammad Zeeshan Nasar, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Mehr Nastaliq Nafeesi (مہر نستعلیق نفیسی) — undated, Nasrullah Mehr, Muhammad Zeeshan Nasar, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Mehr Nastaliq Dehlvi (مہر نستعلیق دہلوی) — undated, Nasrullah Mehr, Muhammad Zeeshan Nasar, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Naqsh — undated, Rawaz Hammas, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Bunyaad — undated, Rawaz Hammas, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Farsi Simple — 2000, United States, evidence grade A, official source linked
PDMS Nastaliq Nafees — 2002, Kashif Hisam, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Nafees Nastaleeq (نفیس نستعلیق) — 2004, Center for Language Engineering (CLE), UET Lahore, Pakistan, evidence grade A, hosted here with live preview and download
Pak Nastaleeq — 2005, Lateef Sagar Shaikh, Mohsin Shafeeque Hijazee, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
PDMS Nafees Jauhar — 2005, Kashif Hisam, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Urdu Emad Nastaliq — 2006, Jawad, Arif Karim, Aijaz Akhtar, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Fajer Noori Nastalique (فجر نوری نستعلیق) — 2006, Pakistan, evidence grade A, hosted here with live preview and download
Jameel Noori Nastaleeq (جمیل نوری نستعلیق) — 2006, Jameel-ur-Rahman (digitization), Pakistan, evidence grade A, hosted here with live preview and download
IranNastaliq (ایران نستعلیق) — 2007, Hossein Zahedi, Amir Ahmad Falsafi, Iran, evidence grade A, official source linked
Alvi Nastaleeq (علوی نستعلیق) — 2008, Amjad Hussain Alvi, Syed Abrar Hussain Shakirulqadree, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Faiz Lahori Nastaliq (فیض لاہوری نستعلیق) — 2009, Faiz Mujaddid, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
DecoType Nastaliq — 2009, Thomas Milo, Mirjam Somers, Netherlands, evidence grade A, official source linked
Dima Shekasteh (دیما شکسته) — 2016, Rouhollah Belvardi, Iran, evidence grade A, official source linked
Yusuf Nastaleeq — 2016, Muhammad Asif, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Photex Nastalique — 2016, Syed Jameel-ur-Rehman, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Awami Nastaliq — 2017, Peter Martin, United States (international team), evidence grade A, official source linked
Mirza (میرزا) — 2017, Amir Mahdi Moslehi, Iran, evidence grade B, official source linked
Jameel Khushkhat — 2017, Basharat Ali, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Noor Dotted Nastaleeq — 2017, Basim, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Dima Nastaligh Tahriri — 2017, Rouhollah Belvardi, Iran, evidence grade A, official source linked
Mehr Nastaliq Web (مہر نستعلیق ویب) — 2017-01-07, Mehr Type, Pakistan, evidence grade A, hosted here with live preview and download
Miremad (میرعماد) — 2019, Iran, evidence grade A, official source linked
Noto Nastaliq Urdu (نوٹو نستعلیق اردو) — 2020, Patrick Giasson, Kamal Mansour (Monotype), United States / United Kingdom / Canada, evidence grade A, hosted here with live preview and download
Gulzar (گلزار) — 2022, Borna Izadpanah & team, United Kingdom / Iran, evidence grade A, hosted here with live preview and download
Farda — 2024, Farwa Ali, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Amin Sci-Fi — 2025, Ishaq Amin, Muhammad Zeeshan Nasar, Pakistan / United Kingdom, evidence grade A, official source linked
Marzi — 2025, Rawaz Hammas, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Shekanj — 2025, Amir Mahdi Moslehi, Iran / Germany, evidence grade A, official source linked
Diwan Nastaliq — 2025, Ahmed Zaza, Egypt, evidence grade C, official source linked
Beaconhouse Nastaliq — 2026, Muhammad Zeeshan Nasar, Pakistan, evidence grade A, official source linked
Tawazun — 2026, Pakistan, evidence grade B, official source linked
Wathiq Nastaliq — 2026, Ahmed Zaza, Egypt, evidence grade A, official source linked
Timeline
1400 — Traditional attribution of Nasta'liq to Mir Ali Tabrizi: Safavid-era sources credit Mir Ali Tabrizi (late 14th-early 15th c.) with perfecting Nasta'liq, a contraction of 'naskh-e ta'liq'; modern scholarship (Elaine Wright) argues it evolved gradually among Shirazi scribes from naskh alone. (source grade B)
1430 — Baysunghuri Shahnama copied in Nasta'liq: Jafar Tabrizi copies the Baysunghuri Shahnama (833 AH) in Nasta'liq by princely command — among the earliest dated high-quality Nasta'liq manuscripts. (source grade B)
1615 — Death of Mir Emad Hassani: Nasta'liq 'achieved its apogee in the writings of Mir Emad'; his style becomes the model for later centuries. (source grade B)
1771 — Death of Abdol Majid Taleqani: Peak of Shekasteh Nasta'liq (cursive 'broken' style). (source grade B)
1781 — Forms of Herkern printed in Calcutta with Nastaliq-attributed type: Francis Balfour's Forms of Herkern (Insha-i-Harkaran) printed at Calcutta with movable type attributed to Charles Wilkins; earliest printed book associated with Nastaliq types, though the script fidelity is debated.
1800 — Fort William College casts Nasta'liq type: Fort William College (Calcutta) casts an early Nasta'liq type (c. 1780s-1800s); it was reportedly never used outside the college library — an early demonstration that Nastaliq resisted movable type. (source grade B)
1877 — Avadh Akhbar becomes north India's first Urdu daily: Published by the Nawal Kishore Press; the Urdu newspaper industry grows on a lithographic basis. (source grade B)
1892 — Death of Mirza Mohammad Reza Kalhor: Kalhor adapted Nasta'liq 'to be easily used with printing machines', aiding wide dissemination of his transcripts and codifying teaching proportions. (source grade B)
1900 — Hyderabad Deccan Nasta'liq typewriter attempt fails: An attempt to mechanise Nasta'liq in Hyderabad Deccan was closed with the official note 'Preparation of Nasta'liq on commercial basis is impossible' (as reported in secondary accounts of Urdu printing history). (source grade B)
1949 — Urdu typewriter commissioned: Pakistan government commissions an Urdu typewriter; Urdu typewriters (and the 1960s-70s five-language 'Panj Lisani/Harrkara') render simplified, disconnected letterforms, not true Nasta'liq. (source grade B)
1965 — Linotype releases Nastaliq (Tamannai Script) hot-metal type: Completion and release of Tamannai's Urdu Nasta'liq matrices for Linotype — the first mechanically composed Nastaliq, achieved through radical simplification.
1981 — Noori Nastaliq created: Calligrapher Mirza Ahmed Jamil collaborates with Monotype to produce Noori Nastaliq, a ligature-based machine Nastaliq with over 20,000 individually designed ligatures — the first standard machine-set Nasta'liq (Urdu Wikipedia). (source grade B)
1982 — Tamgha-e-Imtiaz for Ahmed Mirza Jamil (date disputed): English Wikipedia dates the award 1982; Urdu Wikipedia's phrasing associates it with 1981. Both records preserved. (source grade C)
1983 — Daily Jang adopts computerised Nastaliq laser composing: Jang Group tribute pages state Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman's dream of Noori Nastaliq 'computerised laser composing' came true in the 'early 80s'. The widely repeated '1987' date for Jang's computerisation could NOT be verified in any primary or strong secondary source this session. (source grade C)
1987 — Linotype Sheeraz: Linotype (Mike Fellows, Tim Holloway, Fiona Ross) develops Sheeraz, a rule-based Nasta'liq that composes arbitrary letter combinations from individual glyph shapes — unlike Noori's stored ligatures. (source grade A)
1988 — Concept Software established: Concept Software Pvt Ltd (Delhi) is founded; it will release InPage in 1994. (source grade B)
1989 — Patent GB2208556B for Nasta'liq composition: UK patent granted to the Linotype team for the rule-based Nasta'liq composition system behind Sheeraz/Qalmi. (source grade A)
1994 — InPage released; Linotype Qalmi: Concept Software releases InPage, the WYSIWYG Urdu DTP licensed and augmented with Noori Nastaliq from Monotype; the same year Linotype ships Qalmi, its refined rule-based Nasta'liq. (source grade B)
1997 — Nastaliq Navees released as shareware: Jonathan Kew releases Nastaliq Navees v2.0.1 at the Summer Institute of Linguistics: a symbol-encoded QuickDraw GX Nastaliq for the Macintosh in which 'the glyph used to render any particular character is determined by the surrounding characters' — the first widely usable smart-rendered PC-era Nastaliq (package copyright 1993-2010 SIL). (source grade B)
1999 — UrduNaqsh / Urdu Khat-e-Naqsh (Nastalique): Shehzad Ashiq Ali of Ashiq Enterprises (Lahore) distributes his TrueType UrduNaqsh fonts in ordinary and Nastalique versions for PC, Mac and UNIX from his 'Urdu Page by Shehzad' site — among the earliest documented personal-computer Urdu Nastaliq faces. (source grade B)
2002 — Unicode Arabic-script additions for Urdu: Unicode L2/02-21 documents Arabic script additions for Urdu, Farsi, Pashto and Uyghur — groundwork for Urdu Unicode fonts. (source grade A)
2002 — PDMS Nastaliq Nafees: Pakistan Data Management Services (Karachi) releases PDMS Nastaliq Nafees v1.1 (2002) by Kashif Hisam — an early commercial OpenType Urdu Nastaliq, later deployed to iPhone (per the collected binary's filename) before mobile OS Nastaliq support existed. (source grade A)
2004 — Nafees Nastaleeq v1.00 (CRULP): Pakistan's leading language-engineering centre releases the first version of its compact Unicode OpenType Nasta'liq. (source grade A)
2005 — Pak Nastaleeq (CEUI attribution); Monotype's OpenType Noori revival: Devroye's index attributes Pak Nastaleeq (2005) to Mohsin Shafeeque Hijazee at the government's Center of Excellence for Urdu Informatics; the same year, Kamal Mansour presents Monotype's OpenType re-implementation of Noori Nastaliq at ATyPI Helsinki ('Nastaliq style through open type'). (source grade B)
2005 — PDMS Nafees Jauhar v1.7: PDMS ships Nafees Jauhar v1.7, a ligature/character hybrid (1,706 glyphs, 1,127 GSUB ligature lookups in the analysed build) — the fully documented 'Jauhar Nastaliq' of Pakistani font lists. (source grade A)
2006 — Jameel Noori Nastaleeq circulates: The Urdu Web community's Unicode extension of the Noori Nastaliq glyphs (c. 2004-2008; exact date unverified) becomes the de-facto Urdu font of the internet era, distributed through unofficial mirrors. (source grade C)
2006 — Fajer Noori Nastalique; Urdu Emad Nastaliq: M. G. Abbas Malik releases Fajer Noori Nastalique (character-based Noori style, Unicode 4.0); Jawad, Arif Karim and Aijaz Akhtar produce Urdu Emad Nastaliq (v1.00, Solar Hijri 85-09-21 ≈ 2006-12, kashida at U+0640). (source grade A)
2009 — Noori Nastaliq rights return to the Jamil family: Devroye's Ahmed Mirza Jamil entry records that copyright and trademark of Noori Nastaliq, sold by (Agfa) Monotype, returned to Tariq Jamil Mirza / Ahmed Mirza Jamil in 2009. (source grade B)
2010 — DecoType Nastaliq; SIL archives Nastaliq Navees docs: DecoType ships its ACE-based Nastaliq for Tasmeem/InDesign; SIL publishes documentation (2010-04-20, Jonathan Kew) marking the 1993-2010 Nastaliq Navees package obsolete and discouraging its use. (source grade B)
2010 — DecoType Nastaliq wins TDC2 2010 (designer Mirjam Somers): DecoType Nastaliq (designed 2009 by Mirjam Somers with DecoType's ACE technology) wins the TDC2 2010 certificate in the non-Latin category; later also a Letter.2 award.
2012 — Windows 8 ships Urdu Typesetting; IranNastaliq v2: Microsoft bundles a Nastaliq font with Windows; IranNastaliq v2 (Khordad 1391) remains free. (source grade A)
2012 — AlQalam Taj Nastaleeq; Nastarkib: Syed Abrar Hussain Shakirulqadree and Ishtiaq Ali Qadree (AlQalam) release Taj Nastaleeq (29,833 glyphs; now 1.02M downloads on urdufonts.net); Saad D. Abulhab's Arabetics releases Nastarkib, a Mutamathil-style isolated design employing Nastaliq visual features. (source grade A)
2013 — Hussaini Nastaleeq: Syed Jameel-ur-Rehman derives Hussaini Nastaleeq from Nafees Nastaleeq, covering Arabic and Farsi; later packaged and maintained by Alif Type. (source grade B)
2014 — Noto Nastaliq Urdu designed at Monotype: The Monotype team (Patrick Giasson, Kamal Mansour, Glenda Bellarosa) designs Google's Noto Nastaliq Urdu; earliest repository activity June 2015. (source grade A)
2016 — Dima Shekasteh; Photex series; Yusuf Nastaleeq (SAMAA TV); IranNastaliq 2.0 structures: Rouhollah Belvardi's Dima Shekasteh Free (GPL v2) appears; Jolta Technologies publishes five Photex display Nastaliques credited to syed Jamil-ur-Rehman; SAMAA TV commissions Yusuf Nastaleeq (Muhammad Asif, 'Samaa TV used only'); IRAN FONT's Shekasteh Beta v2.001 (2016-11-27) adopts the IranNastaliq 2.0 structure. (source grade A)
2017 — Mirza; Apple ships Noto Nastaliq Urdu; Jameel Khushkhat: Amirmahdi Moslehi designs Mirza (Granshan 2017, TDC 2018); Apple ships Noto Nastaliq Urdu as the system Nastaliq from macOS High Sierra and iOS 11; Basharat Ali releases the free Jameel Khushkhat. (source grade A)
2019 — Google commissions Gulzar; Dr Rehan Ansari dies: Google commissions Borna Izadpanah to design a new open Nasta'liq; calligrapher Dr Rehan Yousaf Ansari dies, leaving Rehan Nastaliq unfinished. (source grade A)
2019 — Awami Nastaliq v2.000: SIL publishes version 2.000 of the Graphite Nastaliq (version date per Devroye's entry). (source grade B)
2022 — Mehr Nastaliq Web v2 announced: The Mehr Nastaliq Facebook page announces version 2 of the web font (snippet-only, c. 2022); it is later packaged for mobile (XDA, Feb 2024) and on npm (mehr-nastaliq). (source grade A)
2025 — Shekanj design completed (2021-2025) and released by TPTQ Arabic: Amir Mahdi Moslehi's Shekanj (supervised by Kristyan Sarkis, engineered by Amin Abedi) is completed; a TDC-awarded Nasta'liq experiment on a horizontal baseline.
2026 — Iwan Type releases Wathiq Nastaliq 2 (7 weights): Second multi-weight Nastaliq from Iwan Type, announced via designer channels (Meta AI dates it 2026-01-31).
2026 — Naqsh Urdu display typeface released free by Hoor Zubair: Karachi designer Hoor Zubair releases Naqsh, a free Urdu display typeface inspired by Pakistani architectural patterns.
2026 — Folkloristan releases Tawazun (Bauhaus Urdu display): Pakistani studio Folkloristan releases Tawazun, a Bauhaus-inspired Urdu display typeface, via Gumroad.
2007-11 — IranNastaliq v1 (free): Iran's SCICT 'TASMA' plan releases IranNastaliq v1 (Aban 1386) free of charge, after the calligraphy of Amir Ahmad Falsafi. (source grade A)
2008-08 — InPage 3 introduces Unicode: InPage 3 launched at ITCN Karachi (Aug 2008; some sources say 2009) with Unicode support and new bundled Nastaliq faces (Faiz Lahori Nastaliq). (source grade B)
2017-09 — Apple iOS 11 makes Nastaliq the default Urdu system font: iOS 11 drops Naskh and adopts Nastaliq as the default Urdu display font; on Apple platforms the system Nastaliq is the '.Noto Nastaliq Urdu UI' variant.
2022-01 — IranNastaliq v3.03 — paid era begins: Bahman 1400 release starts commercial licensing (from 482,000 tomans), ending 15 years of free IranNastaliq. (source grade A)
2022-11 — Gulzar v1.002: Final Gulzar version to date; repository later archived April 2026 — no 'Gulzar 2.0' exists. (source grade A)
2024-06 — IranNastaliq v3.09: Tir 1403 maintenance release of the commercial Iranian Nasta'liq. (source grade A)
2025-11 — Iwan Type launches Diwan Nastaliq (7 weights): Egyptian foundry Iwan Type (Ahmed Zaza) launches Diwan Nastaliq, a seven-weight contemporary Nastaliq family.
2026-04 — Gulzar repository archived: The googlefonts/Gulzar repository is archived; gulzarfont.org still lists kashida, bold and optical-size variants as future work. (source grade A)
2026-10 — New Jameel Noori Nastaleeq version in development: A post in the Facebook 'Urdu Composers' group (~8 weeks before 2026-11-02) states a new JNN version is in development. Snippet-only; unverified. (source grade C)
1858-11-23 — Nawal Kishore Press founded in Lucknow: Munshi Nawal Kishore founds the press that dominated Urdu publishing (~12,000 titles); it relied on lithography (stones hand-written by staff calligraphers) precisely because cursive scripts like Nasta'liq were impractical to cast as metal type. (source grade B)
2004-02-28 — PakType project on SourceForge: The volunteer PakType typography project registers on SourceForge; its Nastaliq face (Pak Nastaleeq) is later withdrawn from the catalogue. (source grade A)
2007-11-07 — Nafees Nastaleeq v1.01: Bug-fix release documented in the official v1.02 changelog. (source grade A)
2007-11-28 — IranNastaliq launch coverage as first OpenType Persian Nastaliq: Contemporaneous blog coverage of the free IranNastaliq release: 'Iran has released the first ever OpenType Persian Nastaliq font.'
2008-09-24 — Nafees Nastaleeq v1.02: Release that becomes the long-term standard distribution (binary analysed this session: 1,001 glyphs, 109 ligatures). (source grade A)
2009-12-05 — AA Sameer Sagar Nastaleeq: The AA Sameer series publishes Sagar Nastaleeq v1.002 — structurally identical to Nafees Nastaleeq 1.02 (glyph names, cmap and all 109 ligature structures), restyled at bold weight; 'Made by AA Sameer before 2020' (Fonts In Use). (source grade A)
2013-02-14 — Faiz Lahori Nastaliq kashish revision: InPage Pakistan blog documents the revised Faiz Lahori Nastaliq with kashish (elongation) improvements. (source grade C)
2013-03-22 — Mehr Nastaliq announced: CSALT/ITU Lahore with PITB sponsorship announces the character-based 'OpenType Unicode' Mehr Nastaliq (calligraphy: Nasrullah Mehr; engineering: Zeeshan Nasar). (source grade A)
2013-08-08 — Shekasteh Beta v1.001: IRAN FONT (irfont.ir) publishes the first beta of its Shekasteh family, later shown by structural analysis to derive from the IranNastaliq 2.0 base. (source grade A)
2013-11-21 — Amar Nastaleeq announced: Fahmida Riaz announces Amar Nastaleeq, a web-embedding Nastaliq built on Nafees Nastaleeq tables by Amar Fayaz Buriro and Saima Asghar (1,006 characters, 7 ligatures, 154-361 KB); Jang Group websites use it exclusively for 18 months before it opens for free usage (Jang usage flagged [citation needed] in Wikipedia). (source grade B)
2016-06-29 — Google Fonts issue #293 on Jameel Noori Nastaleeq: Google's own tracker records that 'there doesn't seem to be an authoritative release of Jameel Noori Nastaleeq' — formalising the provenance problem of the web's most-used Urdu font. (source grade A)
2017-01-07 — Mehr Nastaliq Web v1.00 released: Muhammad Zeeshan Nasar's Mehr Nastaliq Web (following Nasrullah Mehr's calligraphy), ~470 glyphs, is released; publicly launched with UrduPoint coverage in February 2017 as Pakistan's first calligraphic Urdu web font.
2017-02-09 — Mehr Nastaliq Web launched: UrduPoint covers the launch of Pakistan's 'first calligraphic Urdu web font' by PITB/CSALT researchers. (source grade B)
2017-04-05 — Noor Dotted Nastaleeq v0.20: Basim's Noor Dotted Nastaleeq — a dotted-outline restyle of Fajer Noori Nastalique for Urdu handwriting worksheets — is released, becoming the standard tool of the Urdu tracing-worksheet ecosystem. (source grade A)
2017-07-17 — Awami Nastaliq v1.000 (SIL): SIL International releases the Graphite character-based Awami Nastaliq under the OFL. (source grade A)
2019-06-24 — Miremad v3.001: The 'Miremad' face (manufacturer '2D Typo', FontCreator 11.5 build) is published on the IranNastaliq-derived structure — named after Mir Emad Hassani (d. 1615), the greatest Nasta'liq master. (source grade A)
2020-07-06 — Hasnain Misbahi Taj Nastaleeq (OFL): Hasnain Misbahi publishes a distinct Taj Nastaleeq on the Open Font Library under the SIL Open Font License. (source grade A)
2020-11-19 — Noto Nastaliq Urdu added to Google Fonts: dateAdded in Google Fonts metadata; the font becomes the default Urdu rendering path across Android (and later Apple) platforms. (source grade A)
2022-05-06 — Gulzar v1.000: Borna Izadpanah's open-source Nasta'liq (engineering: Simon Cozens; Latin: Alice Savoie; consultant: Fiona Ross) is released; added to Google Fonts 2022-05-13. (source grade A)
2022-11-28 — CLE–FLI contract to extend Nafees Nastaleeq: The Forum for Language Initiatives contracts CLE to add 43 characters for northern Pakistani languages to Nafees Nastaleeq. (source grade A)
2023-03-28 — Google Fonts publishes Nasta'liq essays: 'Why are there so few digital Nasta'liq Urdu fonts?' and the Gulzar announcement document the engineering difficulty of Nasta'liq for a general audience. (source grade A)
2023-10-02 — Noto Nastaliq Urdu v3.009: Adds U+06B5, U+06AD, U+06CB, U+0695 and ~25 more codepoints; replaces yanked v3.008. GitHub API-verified this session. (source grade A)
2024-01-23 — Farda typeface published: Farwa Ali's Urdu thesis typeface with free download appears on Behance. (source grade A)
2024-07-17 — Noto Nastaliq Urdu v4.000: Major re-engineering ('fixes most open issues'); glyphset reduced dramatically (binary: 1,246 glyphs vs 1,720 in v3.009). GitHub API-verified this session. (source grade A)
2025-05-20 — Marzi font released: Rawaz Hammas publishes the free Urdu display font Marzi on Behance. (source grade A)
2025-09-30 — Syed Manzar portfolio merges into InPage: The Indian font developer's Nastaliq portfolio is folded into Concept Software's InPage, consolidating the Indian Urdu font ecosystem. (source grade A)
2025-10-17 — Awami Nastaliq v3.400: Current SIL release (binary analysed this session: 1,667 glyphs, Graphite tables present); repository still active on 2026-11-02. (source grade A)
2025-12-29 — Amin Sci-Fi announced: Ishaq Amin's dual-script Urdu+English typeface announced with Mehr Type on X. (source grade A)
2026-04-26 — google/fonts issue #10473 requests Jameel Noori Nastaleeq: A community request to add Jameel Noori Nastaleeq to Google Fonts is opened, illustrating the font's continued canonical status and unresolved official-release status.
2026-08-04 — Beaconhouse Nastaliq v1.00: Beaconhouse Group releases the OFL-licensed, character-based Beaconhouse Nastaliq (design/engineering: Muhammad Zeeshan Nasar) — claimed first open-source Nastaliq built entirely in Pakistan. (source grade A)
2026-09-27 — PakType project still active: Last recorded update of the PakType SourceForge project (which discontinued its Nastaliq face but continues Naskh families). (source grade A)
2026-10-28 — Luc Devroye's index updated: The luc.devroye.org typography index (Pakistan, Iran and font pages) carries its last-updated stamp of 2026-10-28 — the snapshot used by this database's second research pass. (source grade B)
2026-11-02 — Research session closes: Binary verification of six Nastaliq fonts (Noto 3.009/4.000, Awami 3.400, Gulzar, Nafees 1.02, Beaconhouse 1.00) completed with fontTools; Awami repository pushed same day. (source grade A)
2026-11-03 — Second research session: luc.devroye.org integration: Eight luc.devroye.org pages plus the Wikipedia Nastaliq, Amar Nastaleeq and Nastaliq Navees articles and SIL's Nastaliq Navees archive are parsed and merged: 7 new families, 8 new releases, 2 candidates promoted, 1 major date correction (Nastaliq Navees 2010→1997). (source grade A)
2026-11-04 — Third research session: user font collection analysed: The user-uploaded nastaliq-fonts-collection.7z (41 TrueType files, archive SHA-256 91f7b9cf…) is extracted and every file analysed with fontTools 4.62.1: full name tables, glyph counts, GSUB/GPOS inventories, checksums; structural comparisons prove six derivation chains (Noor Dotted←Fajer Noori; AA Sameer Sagar←Nafees 1.02; Shekasteh Beta/Miremad←IranNastaliq 2.0; Dima Shekasteh Free↔Free 2; Amir Noori↔AlQalam Head; Urdu Khush Khati↔Dehalvi Khush Khat). 19 new families and 22 new releases added; disputes 007 and 009 resolved by binary evidence. (source grade A)
Method
Sources are graded A (primary/official: foundry, designer, font binary, peer-reviewed), B (reliable secondary), C (community/circumstantial) and D (weak, kept only when relevant). Where a binary could be obtained, claims were verified against the file itself — name tables, glyph counts, GSUB/GPOS inventories, SHA-256 — and structural comparison proved six derivation chains. Unverified candidates, disputed claims and research gaps are published openly with priorities: the archive is an open investigation file, not a closed story.