Arabic Vocabulary Lists > Arabic Calligraphy Generator
This Arabic calligraphy generator turns Arabic text into an image in 12 free fonts covering Naskh, Kufi, Ruqah, Nastaliq and three more styles. Type or tap the letters, keep or remove the vowel marks, choose ink and background colours, and download a PNG, with a transparent background if you want one. It runs in your browser, with no sign-up.
No Arabic keyboard? Tap the letters
The generator runs in your browser and needs JavaScript turned on.
Naskh the print style
Thuluth-style Naskh with Thuluth touches
Kufi angular, for logos and titles
Ruqah everyday handwriting
Nastaliq the hanging Persian and Urdu style
Kano West African reed-pen style
Poster bold display lettering
Nothing you type leaves your browser; the only thing fetched is the fonts, from Google Fonts. Want to type in these styles on your own computer? Download free Arabic fonts, with our pick for each style.
How to make Arabic calligraphy online
Type your text, click a font card, then press Download PNG. The image is cropped to your words, at the letter size you set, so there is nothing to trim afterwards. Set to Amiri on a white background, it also works as a plain Arabic text generator for printed-looking Arabic. Step by step:
- Get the Arabic right first. The generator draws exactly what you type and does not translate. To write an English name, spell it with our English-to-Arabic name converter and paste the result in. Looking for a name rather than converting one? Pick an Arabic name first, with its meaning.
- Type it. No Arabic keyboard? Open the letter row under the box, or use our online Arabic keyboard, which also lets you type Arabic on an ordinary English keyboard. Press Enter to split the text over two lines. The box holds 120 characters.
- Decide on the vowel marks. Untick Vowel marks to strip the harakat, the small strokes above and below the letters. Everyday Arabic leaves them out, so a sign or a logo usually does too. Keep them for teaching material or for a name you want read correctly.
- Pick a font and colours. Click any card to move the preview into that font. Tick Transparent to drop the background, so the image sits on a T-shirt design, a slide or a video with no box around it.
- Download. The Size slider sets the letter size from 40 to 200 pixels. For print, use the top of the range.
Which Arabic calligraphy style should you choose?
Use Naskh when people must read the words easily, Kufi for a logo or a title, Ruqah for a quick handwritten look, and Nastaliq for a line that slopes like Persian poetry. The table shows the word سلام (salam, peace) in one font from each style. Transliteration on this page uses plain English letters, with ʿ for the letter ʿayn.
| Style | Arabic | Name means | What it looks like | Use it for | Font in the tool | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naskh | نسخ | naskh, copying | Rounded letters on a flat line | Anything read at length; modern Arabic print grew out of it | Amiri | سلام |
| Thuluth | ثلث | thuluth, a third | Tall verticals, wide spacing | Chapter headings in the Quran and mosque inscriptions | Katibeh (Naskh with Thuluth touches) | سلام |
| Kufi | كوفي | kufi, from Kufa | Angular, straight strokes | Logos and ornament; once, Quran headings | Reem Kufi | سلام |
| Ruqah | رقعة | ruqʿa, a patch or a slip | Short, clipped strokes | Everyday handwriting and signs | Aref Ruqaa | سلام |
| Nastaliq | نستعليق | nastaʿliq, hanging naskh | Each word slopes down to the left | Persian and Urdu, and poetry | Gulzar | سلام |
Two groups in the tool are not classical styles. Alkalami follows the Kano style of northern Nigeria and Niger; its makers at SIL named it after the local word for the qalam, a sharpened stick used to write on wooden boards. Lalezar and Blaka are poster lettering. Diwani, the Ottoman court hand, is missing: we found no Diwani font among the Arabic families on Google Fonts. Both Nastaliq fonts were drawn for Urdu, and they set Arabic words too.
Once you know which style you like, download free Arabic fonts, with our pick for each style, to type in it in Word, Canva or Photoshop.
What a font can do, and what it cannot
A font is typeset lettering drawn in a calligraphic style, and that is all the generator can give you. Each letter has one fixed shape for each position in a word, so a letter looks the same every time it appears. A calligrapher reshapes a letter to suit its neighbours, stacks words, stretches a line to fill a space, and sizes every stroke by rule. In the classical system credited to Ibn Muqla, letters are measured against three things: the dot made by the pen, the height of the alif, and a circle as wide as the alif is tall.
So use the generator for a mock-up, a social post, a slide, a sticker or the first draft of a logo. For a framed gift or a wedding invitation, pay a calligrapher to write it by hand.
Before anything permanent, a tattoo or an engraving, have a native reader check the spelling. One dot changes the letter: ح (h) and خ (kh) differ only by the dot above. Gaps inside a word are normal, though. Six letters never join the letter after them, which our Arabic alphabet chart with all four letter forms shows letter by letter.
Is the calligraphy free to use?
Yes, including for commercial work. All 12 fonts are released under the SIL Open Font License. The licence's official FAQ says OFL fonts may be used for any kind of design work, logos included, and that you stay the copyright holder of what you make.
We chose the 12 from the Arabic families on Google Fonts on 5 October 2026. For each one we checked the licence file in its download, then opened the font itself to confirm it has all 28 letters, the hamza forms and the eight vowel marks on the letter row above. All 12 passed. The one gap: Blaka has no dagger alif, a rarer mark covered in our guide to Arabic diacritics. Nothing you type is uploaded: the page fetches only the fonts, from Google Fonts, and draws the image on your own device. For more free tools, books and courses, see our Arabic learning resources.
Frequently asked questions
How do you use an Arabic calligraphy generator?
Type or paste Arabic into the box, click a font, set the colours and letter size, then press Download PNG. The generator on this page also has a letter row for people without an Arabic keyboard and a switch that removes the vowel marks. It does not translate, so turn an English name into Arabic letters first.
What are the different styles of Arabic calligraphy?
The main styles are Kufi (angular, named after the city of Kufa), Naskh (the rounded book hand that modern Arabic print grew from), Thuluth (tall and grand, used for chapter headings and mosque inscriptions), Ruqah (quick everyday handwriting), Nastaliq (the sloping Persian and Urdu hand) and Diwani (the Ottoman court hand). The generator has fonts for all of them except Diwani; its Thuluth option is Katibeh, a Naskh font with Thuluth touches.
Can Arabic be written in cursive?
Arabic is always written joined up, in print as well as by hand, so there is no separate cursive alphabet as in English. Twenty-two of the 28 letters join on both sides. Six, alif, dal, dhal, ra, zay and waw, join only to the letter before them, which is why small gaps appear inside some words.
What is the Ruqah script?
Ruqah is the plain, fast style used for everyday handwriting and many signs. Its letters are short and clipped and sit on a straight line. Two Ottoman calligraphers standardised it in the 19th century. In the generator, Aref Ruqaa and Rakkas are both Ruqah fonts.
Can I use the calligraphy images commercially?
Yes. All 12 fonts in the generator are released under the SIL Open Font License. The licence's official FAQ says OFL fonts may be used for any kind of design work, logos included, and that you remain the copyright holder of what you make. What you may not do is sell the font files by themselves.