Rasm (Skeleton)
الرسم
The base letter shapes before dots and marks
Rasm (رسم) refers to the skeletal structure of Arabic letters — the base shapes before any dots or diacritical marks are added. Arabic has approximately 18 distinct rasm shapes that generate all 28 letters through the addition of dots. This means the script is built on a smaller set of core forms than it might first appear, and understanding rasm reveals the deeper logic of the alphabet.
Historical Significance
Early Arabic manuscripts were often written without dots, relying on context and reader expertise to distinguish letters. The addition of dots (iʿjām) was a later standardization that made the script more accessible. For type designers, rasm is a foundational concept: designing the skeleton well means that all dotted variants built on it will be consistent. Poor rasm design creates compounding problems across the entire character set.