Zapfino Arabic is designed by Nadine Chahine as the Arabic companion to Hermann Zapf’s iconic Zapfino typeface, with the approval of Prof. Zapf. The design is an evolution of Arabic calligraphic traditions that combines Naskh and Nastaaliq to form a backward slanted calligraphic style. The character proportions refer to Naskh traditions but the isolated and final forms bring with them an exaggerated swash-like movement that references the extravagant ascenders and descenders of Zapfino. The font contains a large number of contextual variants that work to create a smooth flow of pen movement, as well as 10 stylistic sets. The character set supports the Arabic language as well as basic Latin.

Zapfino Arabic is meant to be used as a display typeface, for logos, greeting cards and short headlines. It could also work for short pieces of text, for poetry or chapter introductions, when used in a generous type size and with ample space around it. Its design is soft and elegant, and leaves a lot of room for typographic playfulness.