What are the best fonts for Arabic?

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- Tonyt
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What are the best fonts for Arabic?
OP - August 13, 2012, 01:25 PM

Hey I am knew to Arabic. What are the best fonts to use?

This forum seems to use Tahoma, at leats that's how it comes out in my browser. But then again i am not sure if that was actually a design choice as that is also the font for English.

It seems like facebook also uses Tahoma for Arabic too though. So maybe Tahoma is the font Arabic readers are most familiar with for their language. Is that about accurate?
- ateapotist
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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #1 - August 13, 2012, 08:32 PM

This font is not my favourite. I find it less easy to read.
Also, most professional websites, like BBC Arabic and Al-Jazeera, use the more standard font.

However, my favourite font (the one I find easiest to read) is the one commonly used to print Quranic verses.

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- Tonyt
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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #2 - August 15, 2012, 03:14 PM

Thanks ateapotist.

That is a nice looking font.

Edit: Nevermind I found it here:

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=ArabicFonts_Download#ofl
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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #3 - October 25, 2012, 09:20 PM

Just spotted this. I can make the css call any font you like. Just let me know what font stack you want and you can have it (including Mac and Nix fallbacks of course).

Also, if the size needs adjusting that's easy too.

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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #4 - October 25, 2012, 10:21 PM
Ok, update. I've rewritten the stack like this:
font: 100%/150% "Arabic Transparent", "Arabic Typesetting", "Geeza Pro", serif;
I checked al Jazeera and they run "Arabic Transparent", which is the latest default Windows Arabic font. "Arabic Typesetting" was the previous Windows default (XP, etc). "Geeza Pro" is the current default Arabic font for Mac. Do a hard refresh on your browser and see how it looks.
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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #5 - October 25, 2012, 10:46 PM

Yeah it's better. Good man!

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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #6 - October 25, 2012, 10:52 PM

Although, I still prefer the font used on BBC Arabic (for the summary text, not the titles).

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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #7 - October 25, 2012, 10:58 PM

Ok, that's BBCNassim, which may be a custom font that they are running via web fonts. Not sure if adding that to our stack would have any effect.

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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #8 - October 25, 2012, 11:02 PM

Yup. Google gives us this: http://tntypography.com/bbcnassim.html

Quote
The revamped BBC Arabic and BBC Persian news services are among the first and biggest sites to use Arabic-script webfonts. The BBC World Service has chosen Nassim to carry its Arabic and Persian news, catering to a new typography-centred approach initiated by the mother-site?s redesign.

<snip>

To help bring about this new visual style, I was approached to customise Nassim for use on the Arabic script news sites. This required significant work and close collaboration with the BBC World Service?s designers and editors.

So it's served from the BBC itself and may not be any good for a lot of people. I can add it to the stack anyway and see how it goes. Presumably anyone who has it cached from a visit to the Beeb would see it.

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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #9 - October 25, 2012, 11:08 PM
New stack:
body, td, th, tr {
font: 112.5%/150% "BBCNassim", "Arabic Transparent", "Arabic Typesetting", "Geeza Pro", serif;
}
That's the same default size that the Beeb are using for their summaries. Let me know if it's too big or too small.
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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #10 - October 25, 2012, 11:18 PM

I did a hard refresh and I can't see the BBCNassim font. Oh, and the font size of the thread titles is suddenly big-ass! O_o

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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #11 - October 25, 2012, 11:20 PM

Hmm. Sounds like a fuckup. Ok, I go fix.

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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #12 - October 25, 2012, 11:22 PM

Put it back to the other stack for now.

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Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?
Reply #13 - November 08, 2012, 03:48 PM

Thanks guys. Although doesn't the user need to have these fonts installed on their machine in order to view them in their browser?

That is how I always thought it worked....

The Arabic Wikipedia just started using a really nice looking font, any idea what it is?

http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B7%D8%B1%D8%B7%D9%88%D8%B3

Re: What are the best fonts for Arabic?

Reply #14 - November 08, 2012, 06:02 PM

That's why I chose default fonts supplied with Windows and Mac. Wink

Most boxes should have them. Nix will fall back to whatever Nix default is (varies quite a bit depending on which Nix).

The Arabic Wiki is serving these:

@font-face { font-family: 'Amiri';
	src: url('//bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf3/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Arab/amiri-regular.eot?version=1.0.2&20111213');
	src: local('Amiri'),		url('//bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf3/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Arab/amiri-regular.woff?version=1.0.2&20111213') format('woff'),		url('//bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf3/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Arab/amiri-regular.ttf?version=1.0.2&20111213') format('truetype');
	font-style: normal;}

@font-face { font-family: 'Iranian Sans';
	src: url('//bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf3/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Arab/IranianSans.eot?version=1.0&20111213');
	src: local('Iranian Sans'),		url('//bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf3/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Arab/IranianSans.woff?version=1.0&20111213') format('woff'),		url('//bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf3/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Arab/IranianSans.ttf?version=1.0&20111213') format('truetype');
	font-style: normal;}

@font-face { font-family: 'Miriam CLM';
	src: url('//bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf3/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Hebr/MiriamCLM-Book.eot?version=0.105&20111213');
	src: local('Miriam CLM'),		url('//bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf3/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Hebr/MiriamCLM-Book.woff?version=0.105&20111213') format('woff'),		url('//bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf3/extensions/WebFonts/fonts/Hebr/MiriamCLM-Book.ttf?version=0.105&20111213') format('truetype');
	font-style: normal;}

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Topic: What are the best fonts for Arabic?

Tonyt

OP - August 13, 2012, 01:25 PM

ateapotist

Reply #1 - August 13, 2012, 08:32 PM

Tonyt

Reply #2 - August 15, 2012, 03:14 PM

osmanthus

Reply #3 - October 25, 2012, 09:20 PM

osmanthus

Reply #4 - October 25, 2012, 10:21 PM

ateapotist

Reply #5 - October 25, 2012, 10:46 PM

ateapotist

Reply #6 - October 25, 2012, 10:52 PM

osmanthus

Reply #7 - October 25, 2012, 10:58 PM

osmanthus

Reply #8 - October 25, 2012, 11:02 PM

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Reply #9 - October 25, 2012, 11:08 PM

ateapotist

Reply #10 - October 25, 2012, 11:18 PM

osmanthus

Reply #11 - October 25, 2012, 11:20 PM

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Tonyt

Reply #13 - November 08, 2012, 03:48 PM

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