Scheherazade New

Scheherazade New is a free Naskh font developed by SIL for Arabic-script publishing. Its four upright weights make it a candidate for reading text, educational material and publications that need a restrained hierarchy.

Start with the publishing workflow

This package supplies version 4.500 of Scheherazade New. Keep the full family name in a production specification: an older file named Scheherazade is not necessarily a substitute for this release. Record the installed version before exchanging documents with an editor or printer.

Test a page containing headings, body text, a quotation and footnotes. Compare its rhythm with Amiri, then inspect line breaks and page depth. Choosing the font early reduces the amount of layout work required after a text revision.

Four files for a compact hierarchy

The download includes Regular 400, Medium 500, SemiBold 600 and Bold 700 as separate TTFs. There are no italic files. Try Regular for the reading text and use the intermediate weights to compare emphasis without changing the family.

For a wider weight range and a different design background, examine Lateef. A larger weight set is useful only when the publication has roles that need it.

Check the actual character repertoire

The supplied files include Arabic and Latin characters. SIL’s project serves extended Arabic-script publishing, but a general coverage statement does not certify your document. Build a sample containing the letters, vowel marks and punctuation your language or editorial convention requires.

Inspect that sample in the application that will export the final document. For Persian, Urdu or specialized notation, check the required characters explicitly. Allow enough line spacing for the result instead of assuming a Latin paragraph setting will transfer unchanged.

Latin text in references

Use the included Latin as a first comparison for citations and references. If your publication specifies a separate Latin text face, compare visual size, emphasis and punctuation in a mixed paragraph. Check the footnotes at their final size as well as the main text.

OFL files and reserved names

The ZIP contains the four original TTFs and the SIL Open Font License 1.1. Personal and commercial use, embedding and redistribution are permitted under its terms. The Reserved Font Names are “Scheherazade” and “SIL”; distributed modifications must respect that restriction. Selling the font by itself is prohibited.

See the Google Fonts source directory, compare other Naskh Arabic fonts and prepare a sample with the Arabic keyboard. Our guide to choosing an Arabic font provides a testing framework.

If the project calls for a variable Naskh file, compare Noto Naskh Arabic and its 400–700 weight range with the same reading sample.

Compare PakType Tehreer’s compact traditional texture on a printed paragraph. It supplies one Regular weight, so assess text density and heading hierarchy separately before replacing a multiweight reading family.