Fonts that support Arabic
Open-license families for the Arabic script with a matching Latin: Naskh text faces, Kufi-based sans-serifs and display designs.
Marhaba
The Arabic script is written from right to left and is cursive by nature: letters join, and most change shape depending on whether they stand alone, begin, continue or end a word. A font must therefore contain several forms of each letter and the rules that choose between them. It serves many languages besides Arabic, including Persian, Urdu, Kurdish and Sindhi, and each adds letters of its own.
Arabic typefaces are usually described by the calligraphic style they follow. Naskh is the classic book hand, rounded and flowing, and is the normal choice for long text. Kufi is geometric and angular, with a strong horizontal baseline; modern sans-serif Arabic for interfaces and branding usually derives from it. Ruqaa is a compact everyday hand, and Nasta'liq, with its sloping words, is the preferred style for Urdu.
For mixed Arabic and Latin work, look for families in which both scripts were designed together, so that weight and apparent size agree on a shared line. Check which languages you need: Persian and Urdu require additional letters and sometimes different numeral shapes. Arabic text also wants more line spacing than Latin, to make room for marks above and below.
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Cairo
Kufi-based Arabic with Latin, variable in weight with a slant axis.
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Amiri
A classical Naskh for books and running text, in Regular and Bold with italics.
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Vazirmatn
A Persian and Arabic sans for web pages and apps, variable across nine weights.
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Rubik
Arabic alongside Hebrew and Cyrillic in one sans with slightly rounded corners.
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Markazi Text
An Arabic and Latin text serif with moderate contrast, variable from Regular to Bold.
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Scheherazade New
A traditional Naskh in four weights whose makers state it covers every Arabic-script character in Unicode 14.0.
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Alexandria
An Arabic made as the companion to a wide geometric Latin sans, in nine variable weights.
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Changa
A compact square-shouldered sans for Latin and Arabic, variable from 200 to 800.
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Fustat
Rooted in manuscript Kufi, in seven weights from ExtraLight to ExtraBold.
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Reem Kufi
Kufic Arabic joined to a geometric Latin sans, variable from Regular to Bold.
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Alan Sans
A round, open sans covering Latin and Arabic, variable from Light to Black.
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El Messiri
Arabic with brush-like curves, paired with Latin and Cyrillic.
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Lateef
An extended Arabic-script family in seven weights, styled for Sindhi and other South Asian languages.
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Harmattan
An Arabic-script family in the Warsh style for West African languages, in four weights.
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Gulzar
An Urdu Nasta'liq typeface with a purpose-drawn Latin companion.
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Aref Ruqaa
The classical Ruqaa calligraphic style with a pen-written Latin, in two weights.
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Lemonada
A slanted, brush-like Arabic and Latin display family on a Light-to-Bold weight axis.
Samples load a basic Latin subset of each family. Every family here carries an open license; its page states the terms and offers the original files.
Questions about fonts that support Arabic
What is the difference between Naskh and Kufi fonts?
Naskh is a rounded, cursive style used for books and long text. Kufi is angular and geometric, and is the basis of most modern Arabic sans-serifs for headings, interfaces and logos.
Do Arabic fonts also work for Persian and Urdu?
Only if they include the extra letters those languages use. Urdu is also traditionally set in Nasta'liq. Check the language list and test real text.
Why do Arabic letters appear disconnected in my software?
The application is not applying Arabic shaping, the OpenType step that picks the initial, medial, final or isolated form of each letter. Use software with complex-script support; setting the direction to right-to-left alone does not join the letters.
Are these Arabic fonts free for commercial use?
Yes. All of them are under the SIL Open Font License, which permits commercial use and embedding.