There are a lot of books on Arabic calligraphy and the writing system of the Arabic script but not so much on Arabic typography. Below is a list of books that I found to be very helpful during my research at Reading and AUB.

Abbot, Nadia
Studies in Arabic Literary Papyri. Chicago; The University of Chicago Press, 1967

Arbery, Arthur J.
Arabic printing types: a report made to the Monotype Corporation. 1938

Arberry, Arthur John
Specimens of Arabic and Persian Paleography. London; India Office, 1939

Arberry, Arthur John
Islamic Manuscripts. Journal of the Royal ASIATIC Society, part III. July 1939

Barton, David
Sustaining local literacies. Clevendon, Multilingual Matters Ltd, 1994

Beeston, A. F. L.
The Arabic Language Today. London; Hutchinson University Library, 1970

Cooper, John
The Significance of Islamic Manuscripts. London; Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1992

Déroche, François
The Abbasid Tradition: Qur’ans of the 8th to the 10th centuries AD.
Part of The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art
Oxford; Nour foundation, 1992

Gaur, Alebertine
Literacy and the politics of writing. Bristol, Intellect Books, 2000

Gleichen, Edward and John H. Reynolds
Alphabets of foreign languages. London, Edward Stanford Ltd, 1993

Gray, W.S.
The teaching of reading and writing. Paris, Unesco, 1956

Grohmann, Adolf
Arabic Papyri in the Egyptian Library. Cairo; Egyptian Library Press, 1952

Grohmann, Adolf
From the World of Arabic Papyri. Cairo; Royal Society of Historical Studies, 1952

Hamm, Roberto
Pour une typographie Arabe. Paris, Sindbad, 1975

Hanziker, Hans Jürg
“Aspects of Arabic Script Reform” Swiss Typographic Monthly Magazine, number 4, 1985

Jalabert, Louis and René Mouterde
Inscriptions Greques et Latine de la Syrie. Paris; Librairie Orientaliste, 1967

James, David
After Timur: Quorans of the 15th Century
Part of The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art
Oxford; Nour foundation, 1992

James, David
The Master Scribes
Part of The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art
Oxford; Nour foundation, 1992

Jensen, Hans
Sign, symbol and script: an account of man’s efforts to write
Translated by George Unwin. London, George Allen &Unwin Ltd, 1970

Jones, Philip W.
International policies of third-world education: UNESCO, literacy and development. London and New York, Routledge, 1988

Khan, Geoffrey
Bills, Letters and Deeds: Arabic Papyri of the 7th to the 11th centuries
Part of The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art
Oxford; Nour foundation, 1993

Khan, Geoffrey
Arabic Papyri: Studies in the Khalili Collection
Part of The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art
Oxford; Nour foundation, 1993

Khattar, Nasri
The unified Arabic type. New York, 1947

Linotype and Machinery Limited
“Linotype composition in Arabic” Linotype Matrix #23, 1955

Linotype and Machinery Limited
“Simplified Arabic” Linotype Matrix #32, 1959

Linotype and Machinery Limited
“New faces of the ’50s” Linotype Matrix #33, 1960

Linotype and Machinery Limited
Yakout: a fine simplified Arabic design for Linotype composition
Cheshire, England

Loth, Otto
A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office. London; India Office, 1877

Massoudy, Hassan
Calligraphie Arabe Vivante. Paris; Flammarion, 1981

Milo, Thomas
“Arabic Script and Typography” in Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode ed by John D. Berry. New York; ATypI.Graphis, 2002

Milo, Thomas
“Arabic Script and Typography” in Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode ed by John D. Berry.
New York; ATypI.Graphis, 2002

Milo, Thomas
“Authentic Arabic: a case study” 20th Unicode conference. Washington DC, 2002

Mitchell, T. F.
Writing Arabic: a practical introduction to the Ruq’a script
Oxford University Press, 4th ed, 1970

Nakanishi, Akira
Writing systems of the world: alphabets syllables pictograms
Vermont, Charles E. Tuttle Co, 1980

Ong, Walter J.
Orality and literacy: the technologizing of the word. London, Methuen, 1982

Ross, Fiona
“An Approach to Non-Latin Type Design” in Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode ed by John D. Berry. New York ATypI.Graphis, 2002

Safadi, Yassin
“Printing in Arabic” The Monotype Recorder. New series number 2, 1980

Smitshuijzen AbiFares, Huda
Arabic Typography: A Comprehensive Sourcebook. London, Saqi Books, 2001

Versteegh, Kees
The Arabic language. Edinburgh University Press, 1997

Wellisch, Hans H.
The conversion of scripts: its nature, history and utilization. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1978

Tracy, Walter
“Advances in Arabic Printing” British Bulletin for Middle Eastern Studies. Volume 2 issue 2, 1975

Tracy, Walter
“The Flourishing Reed” Alphabet: International Annual of Letterforms. London; James Moran Limited. 1964

Tracy, Walter
“Arabic without tears” The Penrose Annual Vol 68. 1975

Tufte, Edward R.
The visual display of quantitative information. Connecticut, Graphis Press, 1983