Guide

Jali & Mashrabiya Panels: Patterns, Sizes and Materials

A jali panel gives you shade, air and privacy at the same time — and the pattern itself does the design work. This guide covers the classic patterns, where they are used, how sizes work, and how to choose steel or aluminium at the right thickness.

What jali and mashrabiya panels are

A jali is a pierced screen: a flat panel with a pattern cut through it. Light and air pass through the openings, but the view is broken up. That gives you shade without blocking air, and privacy without a solid wall.

The mashrabiya is the best-known form. It has a long tradition in Middle East and Gulf homes, where carved screens shaded majlis windows and decorated villa facades. The pattern kept rooms cooler, let people inside see out, and carries the design of the building itself.

Today the same panels are laser-cut or plasma-cut in sheet metal, at the exact size of the opening — made to measure, not bought in a fixed size and trimmed on site.

The patterns: six geometric, plus floral designs

These are the patterns built into KraftDXF — six geometric patterns plus a floral family. Each can be made at any size, but each suits some jobs better than others.

Islamic star-and-octagon jali

The classic eight-point star set with octagons. Dense, formal and deeply traditional, with the true mashrabiya feel — good for facades and window screens.

Moroccan star-and-cross

Stars with cross tiles in a bold, open geometry. The shapes are large and clear, so this pattern reads well at big sizes, on wide gates and facade panels.

Quatrefoil (overlapping circles)

A soft four-petal repeat from overlapping circles. The curves take the hard edge off metal, so it works well for railings and interior screens.

Hexagon honeycomb

An even, modern grid of hexagons. Strong for its weight and open to light, it is popular for facades and pergola roofs.

Diamond lattice

Simple diagonal diamonds in a clean repeat. Fast-cutting, with the classic garden and gate look — tidy and easy to match across a long run.

Modern straight slots

Clean vertical slots with no ornament at all. Made for contemporary gates, fences and screens where the house itself is plain and minimal.

Floral damask

Mirrored bouquets of flowers, leaves and scroll curls in a seamless tile — the soft, classic damask look for gates, screens and feature panels. It needs a panel big enough for a few repeats, so it suits medium and large panels best.

Vine scroll

Winding stems with leaves, small flowers and scroll curls, flowing up the panel in vertical columns. Made for tall jobs — gates, staircase railings and long balcony infills.

Rose medallion

One rose medallion centred in the panel, ringed with leaves and a dotted border. A feature pattern for centre panels and gate middles, where a single strong motif works better than a repeat.

Where the panels are used

The same pierced panel idea appears all over a building. The most common uses are:

• Villa and house gates — the classic steel gate DXF design job — privacy at the entrance without a heavy solid sheet.
• Balcony and staircase railings — a patterned infill instead of plain bars.
• Window and privacy screens — shade and privacy for rooms facing the sun or a neighbour.
• Building facades — a patterned skin for shade, identity, or both.
• Garden and pergola roofs — dappled shade, without closing the space in.
• Interior room dividers — separation that still lets light through.

Sizes

Panels are made to the opening, in millimetres — width first, then height, measured on site. The pattern is generated to fit the panel you measured; there is no stock size to force it into.

Long runs are split into matching panels rather than cut as one long sheet. Every panel gets a solid frame or border for strength and a clean fixing edge. In KraftDXF, panels are framed by default at 30 mm.

The same pattern scales with the panel. A bigger panel from the same pattern gives thicker webs between the openings; a small panel makes fine detail tighter. So check the bridge rule at the real size — a pattern safe at a large size may be too fine at a small one.

Steel or aluminium — and how thick

Steel is strong and stiff, the usual choice for gates and railings used every day. Its weakness is rust, so it needs paint, powder-coat or galvanising against rust.

Aluminium is much lighter and does not rust — good for facades, screens and coastal air. It is softer than steel, though, so treat its bridges with respect: thin webs bend and tear more easily.

For both, the bridge rule is the same: minimum bridge = 2× thickness. So 2 mm plate needs 4 mm bridges, and 3 mm needs 6 mm. In practice, 2 mm suits light screens, and 3 mm is the common gate and railing thickness. Thicker plate needs proportionally wider bridges, and that means coarser patterns.

More guides: Minimum bridge width for laser cutting · Cut-ready DXF checklist · All guides