x0640

x0640 refers to the Unicode code point U+0640, named ARABIC TATWEEL. It is also called Kashida in Arabic typography. This character is a formatting mark used within the Arabic script to elongate the baseline of a word for justification or stylistic effect, rather than a letter or numeral.

As a formatting character, ARABIC TATWEEL belongs to the general category Cf (format) and is part of the Arabic block in the Unicode standard. In many fonts and rendering environments, the character does not produce a visible glyph; instead, it influences spacing and elongation. Some fonts or contexts may render it as a thin horizontal line, but such rendering is not universal.

Usage and considerations: Tatweel is primarily used in traditional Arabic typography to justify lines by extending certain words. In modern digital text, its practical use varies: some systems apply Kashida automatically during justification, while others treat the character as invisible. It is not intended for everyday writing and may be ignored by search indexing or text processing in some environments. When included in text data, it can affect layout and wrap behavior, so many text-processing pipelines remove or ignore it unless Kashida support is explicitly required.

In HTML or programming contexts, the character can be referenced by its code point as ـ or ʀ. Its presence highlights the broader Unicode support for Arabic script and the inclusion of typographic controls beyond letters and digits.