Guide

The rules of Square Kufic

Square Kufic is drawn on a grid of squares, and a few rules keep it even and readable. Here they are with an example of each, plus how Square Kufic App checks them while you draw.

By Zaid Ahmed · 26 October 2026

The grid

In Square Kufic the lines and the spaces between them are the same thickness, on a square grid.¹ So every stroke is one square wide, every gap is one square wide, and neither is ever thicker.²

In the app, strokes run along every other row and column, starting from the first. Where two gap rows cross, the square stays empty. Beginner mode shades those squares so you can see where not to draw.

Six rules the app checks for you

Beginner mode checks these as you draw. A badge shows how many pass, and tapping a red rule selects the squares that break it. Rules 1, 4 and 6 come from traditional practice. The other three keep your strokes lined up on the grid.

1. Straight lines only

Strokes run across or down, and corners are right angles.³ Two squares that touch only at a corner aren't joined, so add the corner square to make a proper bend. Some modern designers use 45 degree angles,¹ but the app keeps to the traditional square grid.

2. Keep the crossing squares empty

A filled square where two gaps cross means a stroke has slipped off its line.

3. Start and end on a stroke

Your artwork should begin and end on a stroke, not a gap. That makes its width and height odd numbers of squares, like 9 × 9 or 11 × 11.

4. No empty patches

Square Kufic fills its area completely, without gaps or overlaps.¹ Inside your artwork, no space should be wider than one square, so a 2 × 2 empty patch counts as a hole.

5. Letters need five squares or more

A piece of three or four squares is too small to read as a letter. A single square is fine, because the app counts it as a dot.

6. One stroke weight

No line is ever thicker than one square.² A solid 2 × 2 block makes one part look heavier than the rest.

Words can turn

Every line across or down the grid can be a baseline, and each word can face its own direction.² Two simple ways to fill a square are to repeat the same words along all four sides, or to spiral the text in toward the centre.⁴

What only you can check

The app can't read Arabic, so some things are up to you. It lists these under Check by eye in the Rules tab:

• Letters join where Arabic joins them.²
• Words and letters are in the right order and face the right way, and nothing is mirrored by mistake.
• Letters share one height, and words are evenly spaced.
• Letters can be stretched to fill space,² but use stretching (kashida) sparingly.
• Leave out vowel marks. Sakkal notes that removing dots is accepted in Square Kufic too.¹
• Similar letters stay easy to tell apart, and enclosed shapes open the right way.
• No filler dots or padding just to fill the square.

Sources don't agree on how readable Square Kufic needs to be. Medlej writes that it's not concerned with legibility,² while Sakkal says every letter must stay legible and never be bent past its recognisable form.¹⁴ The app's checklist leans toward keeping it readable.

Sources

1. Mamoun Sakkal, Square Kufic Calligraphy in Identity Design, Identity no. 8, 2006.
2. Joumana Medlej, Creative Arabic Calligraphy: Square Kufic, Envato Tuts+.
3. Mamoun Sakkal, Mysteries of Square Kufi Calligraphy, Future Vision, 2003.
4. Mamoun Sakkal, Square Kufi instruction, sakkal.com.

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