Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès is a Lebanese typographer, writer, researcher, graphic designer, lecturer, and design consultant from Beirut. She is the founder and director of the Khatt Foundation.

Biography AbiFarès was born in Beirut in 1965. She studied in the United States, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in graphic design from Rhode Island School of Design in 1987, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University in 1990. In 2001, she published Arabic Typography, in which she examined Arabic typography from a structural and theoretical point of view.

Publications Arabic Typography: a comprehensive sourcebook (Saqi Books, London, 2001) Experimental Arabic Type (Saatchi & Saatchi, Dubai, 2002) Typographic Matchmaking (BIS Publishers, Amsterdam 2007) Typographic Matchmaking in the City (Khatt Books, Amsterdam 2011) Arabic Type Design for Beginners (Khatt Books, Amsterdam 2013) with Nagla Samir, Mouneer Al-Shaarani, Against the Grain: Exploring the Scope of the Arabic Letter. Amsterdam, Khatt Books, 2023, ISBN 978-94-90939-29-8 (e-book, with preview)