How Do I Get Arabic Fonts Into Mac?

By Jen Cordwainer

The native Input Sources and Font Book features in OS X let users access Arabic fonts.
i Jacob Wackerhausen/iStock/Getty Images

The native Font Book library in OS X Mavericks includes default Arabic language fonts, including Al Bayan, Al Nile, and Al Tarikh. You can type Arabic characters into any text field by first enabling Arabic as an input source under your keyboard settings. You can also add additional third-party Arabic typefaces to the Font Book library, so that you can select them from the font menus in your word processing applications.

Using the Included Arabic Input

Step 1

Click on the Apple logo menu on the toolbar.

Step 2

Select "System Preferences" and click "Keyboard."

Step 3

Click on the "Input Sources" tab to view the font and language support for your Mac.

Step 4

Click on the "+" symbol to add a new language to your list of input sources.

Step 5

Highlight the "Arabic" option, select your preferred keyboard configuration, and click on "Add."

Step 6

Click on "Arabic" in the list of Input Sources to type into any text field using Apple's default Arabic fonts. To switch back to English characters and keyboard configurations, return to the "Input Sources" window and select "English."

Adding New Arabic Fonts to Font Book

Step 1

Download a third-party Arabic font file onto your computer's hard drive.

Step 2

Double click the file icon to make a font preview window appear. If there are additional Arabic typefaces available for this font, they will appear in the drop-down menu at the top of this window.

Step 3

Click on "Install Font" to make this Arabic font available in Font Book and various word processing applications.

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