Amiri

Amiri is a classical Arabic typeface in the Naskh style, made for typesetting books and other running text. Pick it when you need Arabic that reads like a well-printed book: reports, editorial layouts, academic papers, religious texts and long articles on the web.

A revival of the Bulaq Press typeface

Amiri revives the Naskh type pioneered in the early 20th century by the Bulaq Press in Cairo, also known as the Amiria Press (المطبعة الأميرية, al-Matba’a al-Amiriyya). The font takes its name from that press. It is designed by Khaled Hosny and Sebastian Kosch and published by Alif Type.

The letterforms keep the logic of the pen: strokes that swell and taper, generous curves, and connections that follow traditional Naskh rules rather than a simplified grid. The result is calm and formal. It looks at home next to a book serif, not next to a geometric UI font.

Best uses and real limits

• Long reading: body text in print and on screen at comfortable sizes. Compare it with other Arabic fonts for books using a full page, including footnotes.
• Vocalized text: Naskh is the reference style for fully voweled Arabic, and Amiri is a natural choice for texts that need harakat (حركات, short-vowel marks).
• Quranic and religious content: the designers document support for Quranic orthography. Compare the fonts for Quranic text using your required signs and verse endings, then check the exported document.

Limits to plan for:

• Only two weights are available here: Regular (400) and Bold (700). For a layout that needs a light or a black weight, look at Tajawal.
• Tall ascenders and deep descenders need extra line height. Start around 1.7–1.9 for body text and check that marks above and below the line do not collide.
• At very small interface sizes (labels, buttons, captions) a low-contrast sans holds up better than a calligraphic Naskh.

Coverage

Amiri covers Arabic and Latin. According to its designers, it supports a large part of the Arabic-script characters in Unicode, many languages written in Arabic script, and a wide range of OpenType features. If your project targets a specific language beyond Arabic, test your own text in the live preview on this page before committing.

Latin pairing

Pair Amiri with a book serif that shares its contrast and warmth. Free options that work well: EB Garamond for a classical feel, Crimson Pro for editorial pages, Source Serif 4 for a more contemporary look. Set the Arabic one or two points larger than the Latin so both scripts look the same size on the line.

For a headline that needs more personality, a Ruq’ah face such as Aref Ruqaa makes a good display partner for an Amiri body.

License in plain words

Amiri is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. You can use it for free in commercial work, embed it in websites, apps and PDFs, and modify it. You cannot sell the font on its own. The download includes the full license text.

Try it

Type a word in Latin letters or arabizi with the online Arabic keyboard and preview it in Amiri. Still comparing styles? Read our guide on how to choose an Arabic font.

For another Naskh reading face, compare Scheherazade New. For a wider weight range with a South Asian design background, try Lateef on the same paragraph.