Urdu fonts change how Urdu feels more than almost anything else. The same sentence can look like a newspaper headline, a school book or a government form. Here is what to know about free Urdu fonts before you pick one.
Nastaliq and Naskh: the two main styles
Nastaliq is the classic Urdu style. Letters flow diagonally from top right to bottom left, and each word sits on a slant. It is what most readers think of as “proper” Urdu, used in newspapers, books, poetry and signs.
Naskh is more upright and horizontal, like Arabic print. It is easier for computers to draw and stays clear at small sizes, so it is common on phones, websites, forms and subtitles.
| Nastaliq | Naskh | |
|---|---|---|
| Look | Flowing, slanted, traditional | Upright, horizontal, plain |
| Best for | Headings, books, poetry, printed documents | Small text, forms, apps, subtitles |
| Line spacing needed | Large | Normal |
| Readability at small sizes | Lower | Higher |
You can compare both on your own text: the tools on this site have a Nastaliq / Naskh switch under the output.
Free Urdu fonts worth knowing
- Noto Nastaliq Urdu (Google): a carefully made, free Nastaliq font under the SIL Open Font License, which allows personal and commercial use, including on websites. It is the Nastaliq font used on this site.
- Noto Naskh Arabic (Google): a clean Naskh font under the same open licence, with full support for Urdu letters.
- Urdu Typesetting: a Nastaliq-style font included with recent versions of Windows, so it is already on many computers.
- Nafees Nastaleeq: a free Nastaliq font from CRULP (Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing), long used for Urdu on the web.
- Jameel Noori Nastaleeq: one of the most popular Urdu fonts in Pakistan. It is widely shared for free, but its licence terms are not clearly published, so check before using it in a commercial product.
How to choose an Urdu font
- For a website: choose a font with a clear open licence (the Noto fonts are the safest choice) and host it on your own site for speed.
- For printed documents: Nastaliq for anything formal or literary; Naskh for tables, forms and dense information.
- For social media: you can’t choose the font readers see; their phone decides. If the look matters, share your text as an image. Our converter’s “Save as image” button does this for you.
Tips for good-looking Urdu text
- Increase line spacing for Nastaliq; 1.8 to 2.2 times the font size is comfortable.
- Use a slightly larger size for Urdu than for English next to it.
- Always set right-to-left direction so punctuation lands in the right place.
How to install an Urdu font
An Urdu font download is usually a .ttf or .otf file, sometimes inside a .zip file.
- Windows: unzip the file if needed, right-click the font file and choose Install. Restart Word, and the font appears in the font list.
- Mac: double-click the font file and press Install Font in Font Book.
- Android and iPhone: phones do not let you add a system font easily. Apps such as Word use their own font list, so the simplest route is to finish the look on a computer or share your text as an image.
Download fonts from their official source, such as Google Fonts for the Noto family, so you get the latest version and the real licence.
Using Urdu fonts on a website
For a website, the font has to be sent to each visitor, so size matters. Nastaliq fonts are large because every letter has many shapes. Three habits keep an Urdu site fast: use the WOFF2 format, load only the weights you need, and set font-display: swap so the text shows at once in a fallback font while the Urdu font loads. Also set line-height to about 2 for Nastaliq, or the lines will touch.
Frequently asked questions
Which Urdu font is used in newspapers?
Urdu newspapers use Nastaliq fonts. Many were typeset in InPage with its Noori Nastaliq font; similar free fonts today are Jameel Noori Nastaleeq and Noto Nastaliq Urdu.
Is Jameel Noori Nastaleeq free?
It is widely shared at no cost and is fine for personal documents. Its licence terms are not clearly published, so for a commercial product a font with an open licence, such as Noto Nastaliq Urdu, is the safer choice.
What is the difference between Nastaliq and Naskh?
Nastaliq is the flowing, slanted style of Urdu books and newspapers. Naskh is the upright, horizontal style that stays clear at small sizes.
Why does my Urdu font not show on another computer?
The other computer does not have the font installed. Embed the font in the document or share a PDF.