Cairo

Cairo is a free Arabic and Latin font family with a Kufi-based Arabic design. Its variable file offers weight and slant controls for bilingual branding, headings and digital products.

Build a bilingual hierarchy

Mohamed Gaber extended the Latin family Titillium Web to Arabic; Google Fonts also credits the Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino. The Arabic design combines a Kufi reference with open counters and relatively short ascenders and descenders.

Start with the built-in Latin when testing a bilingual wordmark or interface. Among Arabic fonts for logos, judge Cairo with the complete brand name and at its smallest planned size. Compare it with Tajawal for the headline and Almarai for supporting text.

What the variable download contains

The ZIP supplies one original variable TTF, version 3.130. The wght axis runs from 200 to 1000 and slnt from −11 to +11. The default position is weight 400 with slant 0.

The preview offers nine upright weight positions, in steps of 100. Its weight selector does not expose the slant axis. Use the downloaded variable file in a compatible application to set intermediate values or adjust slant; the package is not a set of nine static TTFs.

Test the small components too

For a website using Arabic fonts, test Cairo in a form field and a narrow navigation menu as well as in headings. Inspect counters and spacing at the smallest size where you use them, and check thin strokes against the weakest background contrast in the product. For a different Kufi voice at larger sizes, compare Noto Kufi Arabic.

The supplied font covers Arabic, Latin, Persian and Urdu. Include language-specific words, numbers and vowel marks in a production test. Character coverage is only one part of the result; direction, shaping and layout settings also matter.

Cairo Play is a separate choice

Cairo Play is a color variant featuring colored marks. This download contains the standard Cairo variable file and does not bundle Cairo Play. Keep that distinction in a design-system specification so a later font replacement does not change the intended treatment.

OFL license

The original TTF and SIL Open Font License 1.1 are included in the ZIP. Personal and commercial use, embedding and redistribution are permitted under its terms. Retain the license with redistributed font files; selling the font by itself is prohibited.

See the Google Fonts Cairo source, explore other Kufi Arabic fonts and prepare sample text using the Arabic keyboard. Our guide to choosing an Arabic font explains how to compare candidates.