Changa — Free Arabic Google Font
Changa is built for text-heavy layouts — short ascenders and descenders and lowercase letters inscribed within a near-square shape let typographers set tight line spacing without crowding. A separate extra-bold sister, Changa One, handles the display/headline role instead.
About Changa
Changa was designed by Eduardo Tunni and added to Google Fonts in 2012, gaining a variable weight axis in November 2019. Tunni intended it for text: ascenders and descenders are short and the Latin lowercase sits inside a square, so lines can be set with minimal line spacing. An extra-bold display sister, Changa One, was the first style of the family to appear.
Changa's tall x-height and consistent stroke width make it hold up unusually well at very small sizes, which is why it shows up often in mobile-first interfaces where Arabic body text has to stay legible below 14px.
Designer: Eduardo Tunni
Best used for
- Tight-line-spacing text blocks
- Editorial layouts
- Headlines (via the Changa One companion)
How Changa compares
Compared with Cairo, Changa is more compact and blocky, with a squarer texture designed for tight leading. Next to Mada, which also keeps descenders short, Changa looks bolder and more stylised, making it better for compact headlines and labels than for neutral signage. Choose Changa when you need a strong, compact display texture in seven weights rather than a neutral text face.
Tips for using Changa
Changa is useful where vertical space is tight: news tickers, cards, tables, and sports or gaming graphics. Seven weights, ExtraLight to ExtraBold, are available here. Test tight line spacing with your real Arabic text, especially if it carries diacritics, which need room above and below the letters.
Styles & weights
7 weights, self-hosted:
- 200 — Extra Light Download .ttf
- 300 — Light Download .ttf
- 400 — Regular Download .ttf
- 500 — Medium Download .ttf
- 600 — SemiBold Download .ttf
- 700 — Bold Download .ttf
- 800 — Extra Bold Download .ttf
Arabic character preview
ا ب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن ه و ي
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم — مرحبا بالعالم — ٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩
Download Changa
Using Changa on the web
Load it from the Google Fonts CDN:
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Changa:wght@200;300;400;500;600;700;800&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">Then reference it in your CSS:
font-family: "Changa", sans-serif;License
Licensed under the SIL Open Font License — free for personal and commercial use. What the OFL allows →