Shah Raft: two centuries of printing and typefounding in Iran through the prism of a headline

Izadpanah, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4455-4350 (2026) Shah Raft: two centuries of printing and typefounding in Iran through the prism of a headline. Iran. ISSN 2396-9202 (In Press)

Abstract/Summary

This article positions the iconic 1979 headline “Shah Raft” as a lens through which to view two centuries of Iranian print culture, arguing that its affective force can be better understood when situated within a long genealogy of technological and aesthetic change. Beginning with Qajar typographic experiments and moving through the parallel development of lithography and late-nineteenth-century imports from Ottoman and Russian foundries – especially Otto Herbeck’s Moscow Naskhi (ca. 1890) – the study shows how bold, modular letterforms contributed to the reconfiguration of newspaper typography. It traces the institutionalisation of typesetting technologies and the mid-twentieth-century shift to purpose-built display typefaces, culminating in Hossein Haqiqi’s Keyhan-84 (ca. 1962) and Titr (ca. 1973). “Shah Raft” thus emerges not as spontaneous reportage but as a performative design act in which typography itself functions as an active mediator of historical meaning.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/129758
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Arts and Communication Design > Typography & Graphic Communication
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
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