Free Arabic fonts for commercial use, with Latin pairings

The safest free Arabic fonts for commercial work are the ones published on Google Fonts under the SIL Open Font License (OFL). You can use them in a client's logo, on packaging, signs, websites and apps, at no cost. What you cannot do is sell the font file itself. Every family in the list below was checked against Google Fonts' own catalogue data and its licence in October 2026.

"Free" on the internet often means free to download, not free to use. Many sites offer packs of Arabic fonts with no clear licence, or with terms that allow personal use only. For a brand that will print thousands of boxes or run a website for years, that is a risk you do not need.

Below: what "free" means for a font, a list of verified Arabic typefaces with what each suits and a Latin font to try beside it, the traps, web performance basics, and how to test a pair. If you are choosing a brand's type system from the start, read how to choose fonts for a brand first; this article is the shortlist that goes with it.

What "free" means for a font

A font is software, and its licence decides where you may use it. The SIL Open Font License, version 1.1, grants permission to use, study, copy, merge, embed, modify and redistribute the font, and to sell it bundled with software. Its limits are just as clear:

• The font, original or modified, may not be sold by itself.
• A modified version may not use the font's Reserved Font Name without written permission from the copyright holder.
• A modified version must stay under the OFL.
• The licence does not apply to documents you create with the font. Your poster, logo or website is yours.

Google's Fonts FAQ adds the practical answer: all Google Fonts are open source and free, you can use them commercially, even in a product that is sold, and you can use them in any logo. Most use the OFL; a few families use the Apache or Ubuntu Font licences. Every font in the list below is under the OFL.

The list: free Arabic fonts, checked in October 2026

Google Fonts' catalogue data lists more than 50 families that support the Arabic script. These are the ones most useful for brand and product work. The weights are as listed on Google Fonts, and the Latin column is a starting point to test, not a final verdict.

For interfaces and everyday text

IBM Plex Sans Arabic extends IBM's Plex family into Arabic, so the Latin partner is built in. Noto Sans Arabic is part of Google's Noto project, which aims to cover every script, and it has a width axis for tight layouts. Readex Pro, by Nadine Chahine and Thomas Jockin, brings the method behind Lexend, which aims to make reading easier, to Arabic. Almarai and Tajawal come from Boutros: low-contrast designs made for both print and screen.

Zain, also by Boutros, was first made for the telecom group of the same name, and its Google Fonts description says it suits headlines, sub-headings and body text in print and on the web. This site uses Lexend for English with Zain for Arabic, both under the OFL.

Cairo and Alexandria are by Mohamed Gaber, a type designer based in Cairo. Cairo extends the Latin family Titillium Web into a Kufi-based Arabic; Alexandria is the Arabic companion of Montserrat.

For reading and editorial work

Amiri, by Khaled Hosny, revives the Naskh type of the Bulaq Press in Cairo, also known as the Amiria Press. For Quranic verses, Google Fonts also offers Amiri Quran, a version made for that purpose. Noto Naskh Arabic is described by Google as suited to use with serif fonts, and Markazi Text came out of a University of Reading and Google project, designed for comfortable reading.

For headings and display

Reem Kufi is based on early Kufic models and, in its own description, gives a feeling of something old, historical or Islamic: lovely in a title, wrong in a paragraph. Lalezar, by Borna Izadpanah, revives bold film-poster lettering. Fustat draws on manuscript Kufi and includes tabular digits for prices and tables. Aref Ruqaa brings the quick, friendly Ruqaa hand to short headings.

Traps to avoid

• Download sites and font packs. Many collections of "free Arabic fonts" include commercial fonts uploaded without permission, sometimes under new names. A free download is not a licence.
• "Personal use only" and demo versions. These often lack weights or characters, and they do not cover client work.
• Fonts that came with your computer or software. They are licensed with that software. Check the terms before you host them on a website or embed them in an app.
• Old fonts built for older systems. Some legacy Arabic fonts do not join letters correctly in modern apps, or misplace dots and diacritics.
• Edited fonts. If you change an OFL font and share the files, they must stay under the OFL, and you may need to rename them.
• A logo typed in a free font. It is legal under the OFL, but anyone can type the same name. For the mark itself, drawing is safer. At Kababgy Al-Sultan, the mark is hand-drawn lettering, while the name and supporting text use a heavy, rounded Arabic face.

How to check a font's licence yourself

The list above is correct for October 2026, but fonts are added and updated. These steps work for any font before you build a brand on it:

1. Find the original source: the family's page on Google Fonts, or the designer's or foundry's own site, not a download page.
2. Read the licence itself. Is it the OFL, Apache, or a commercial licence with its own terms and prices? A download site calling it "free" is not enough.
3. Find the licence file. In Google's public google/fonts repository on GitHub, an OFL.txt file sits next to each family's font files. That is where the licences in this list were checked.
4. Match the name and designer. Copied fonts are sometimes re-uploaded under new names, so make sure both match the original source.
5. Keep a copy of the licence and the source link with the brand files, so the next designer or developer can find them.

Web performance basics

Arabic font files tend to be heavier than Latin ones, because each letter has several joined forms. A few habits keep pages fast:

• Let subsets work for you. Google Fonts splits families by script. When the browser supports unicode-range, it downloads only the subsets the page actually needs.
• Load only the weights you use. Two or three weights per script cover most sites. If you need many, a variable font can be lighter than several separate files.
• Show text straight away. Add display=swap to the Google Fonts request, or font-display: swap when you host the files yourself.
• Self-hosting is allowed. The OFL permits you to put the files on your own server.

The full performance checklist, from WOFF2 files to preloading, is in the brand fonts article linked at the top.

How to test an Arabic and Latin pair

A font list helps you start. Real text decides. Build a one-page test sheet:

1. A headline and a paragraph in each language, scaled until the Arabic letter bodies match the Latin lowercase by eye.
2. A mixed line: an Arabic sentence with an English brand name and numbers inside it.
3. Words full of dots and joins, such as تثبيت and بنتيجة, and the lam-alef ligature لا.
4. Prices, phone numbers and dates in the digits your brand uses.
5. Arabic punctuation: the comma ، the semicolon ؛ and the question mark ؟
6. Diacritics, if your content needs them, such as educational or religious text.
7. The same sheet on a phone at real size, reversed on a dark background, and printed small.

Look for three things: the two scripts at the same visual size, weights that feel equally bold, and paragraphs with a related texture. Lexend and Zain, the pair on this site, are separate families, and a pair like that needs its own size and line height for each script rather than one shared setting.

Fonts are one part of the system. Colour, the logo and the guide around them are covered in what is a brand identity.

Conclusion

Free Arabic fonts are a serious option for brands now, not a compromise, as long as they come from a source with a clear licence. Start from the OFL families on Google Fonts, pick by job (text, interface or headline), pair each with a Latin face you have tested in real text, and keep the licence with the brand files.

If you want a bilingual type system built and tested for your brand, tell me about your project.