El Messiri — Free Arabic Google Font
El Messiri's Arabic component, by Mohamed Gaber, imagines Naskh drawn with a brush rather than the traditional reed pen, giving it a curved, flowing warmth. It pairs with Jovanny Lemonad's Latin design (based on his Philosopher typeface) and works as comfortably in small interface text as it does at display size.
About El Messiri
El Messiri's Arabic was designed by Mohamed Gaber and began from Jovanny Lemonad's Latin and Cyrillic typeface Philosopher. Gaber's concept was a curvy Arabic inspired by Naskh but drawn as if with a brush instead of the traditional bamboo pen. It was added to Google Fonts in 2016 and became a variable font in August 2021; the Arabic supports Arabic, Farsi and Urdu.
Designers: Mohamed Gaber, Jovanny Lemonad
Best used for
- Warm, brush-inspired branding
- Editorial and lifestyle design
- Small-to-large size flexibility
How El Messiri compares
Lemonada, also by Gaber, is more decorative thanks to its Diwani influence; El Messiri is calmer and copes better with short paragraphs. Against Amiri, El Messiri has lower contrast and a softer, brush-like stroke, so it feels contemporary rather than classical. Choose El Messiri for warm, approachable layouts where Amiri would feel too formal and Lemonada too playful.
Tips for using El Messiri
Wide counters keep El Messiri readable at small sizes, and its curves give it character at display sizes, so one family can carry a magazine spread, a menu or an invitation. Four weights, Regular to Bold, are available here. Its Latin is based on Philosopher, which keeps bilingual headings consistent.
Styles & weights
4 weights, self-hosted:
- 400 — Regular Download .ttf
- 500 — Medium Download .ttf
- 600 — SemiBold Download .ttf
- 700 — 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 El Messiri
Using El Messiri on the web
Load it from the Google Fonts CDN:
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=El+Messiri:wght@400;500;600;700&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">Then reference it in your CSS:
font-family: "El Messiri", sans-serif;License
Licensed under the SIL Open Font License — free for personal and commercial use. What the OFL allows →