Free Quran Fonts for Fully Vocalized Arabic Text

What a Quran font has to handle

• Complete vocalization: every letter may carry harakat (حركات, short-vowel marks), plus shadda (شدة, the doubling mark) and tanwin (تنوين, nunation). Stacked marks must still sit clearly on the right letter.
• Quranic signs: pause signs, small high letters and the sajdah sign (سجدة, prostration) sit mostly between U+06D6 and U+06ED. The text also needs the dagger alif (U+0670) and the alif wasla (ٱ, U+0671), and quotations are often framed by ornate parentheses (U+FD3E–U+FD3F). When a font lacks a sign, the software shows an empty box or borrows it from another font.
• The end-of-ayah sign: U+06DD is meant to enclose the verse number that follows it.
• A clear license: some fonts made for printed copies of the mushaf (مصحف, mushaf) come with their own terms. This page lists only fonts under the SIL Open Font License.

Which Naskh to use for a verse

Each font here belongs to the Naskh style, the reference for printed Quran text, and each one contains every Quranic sign we checked in its files: U+06D6 to U+06ED, U+0670, U+0671 and U+FD3E–U+FD3F. A glyph being present does not prove it is well placed, so test a vocalized verse in each font page's preview.

Amiri revives the Bulaq Press Naskh, a metal type that was one of the few used to typeset the Quran. Choose it for a traditional, book-like page in Regular and Bold.

Scheherazade New, developed by SIL for Arabic-script publishing, adds Medium and SemiBold for headings and translations.

Lateef, also from SIL, has seven weights and a design background in South Asian Arabic-script languages. Test it for editions aimed at those readers.

Noto Naskh Arabic, from Google's Noto collection, comes as one variable file from 400 to 700 and also covers Persian and Urdu.

Practical checks before you typeset

• Copy the verses from a verified digital source instead of retyping them, then proofread against a printed mushaf.
• Build one test page with your longest verse, a shadda carrying a vowel, an end-of-ayah sign with its number and several pause marks.
• Marks above and below the line need extra height. For Amiri, start around 1.7 to 1.9 and raise it if marks from two lines touch.
• In Word, Arabic takes its own font setting; see Arabic fonts for Microsoft Word before you format a document.

For other long religious texts, compare the Arabic fonts for books. To add a missing mark by hand, the online Arabic keyboard includes harakat, and the guide to choosing an Arabic font includes a harakat legibility test.