Behind the font
The Story Behind
Dirham Font.
Dirham Font was designed by Tamer Azab, a Dubai-based creative director with 20+ years in branding, campaigns and digital product, in Arabic and English. Here is why it exists, how the symbol was drawn into a font, and who it is for.
Who made the Dirham Font?
Dirham Font is made by Tamer Azab, who also goes by TAMZ. His portfolio at tamer.ae describes him as a Dubai-based creative director and art director with 20+ years across branding, campaigns and digital product, for names including Amazon, Emirates, Porsche, Hugo Boss, Tiffany & Co. and L’Oréal. Today he works in Amazon’s Brand Innovation Lab in Dubai.
On this site he sums up his approach in one line: Branding is where I start. Not where I stop.
He works in Arabic and English, and both are native languages for him.
Why was the Dirham Font made?
The Central Bank of the UAE unveiled the new Dirham symbol on 27 March 2025. A currency symbol only becomes useful once you can type it, and for a long time you couldn’t. There was no key for it, and no Unicode code point until Unicode 18.0 added U+20C3 on 16 September 2026. Even now, many phones, laptops and apps don’t have it in their fonts yet.
So people did what they could. The symbol got pasted into menus, price lists, invoices and Instagram posts as a screenshot or a PNG. It went blurry when enlarged, came out in the wrong colour, and couldn’t be edited like the rest of the text.
Dirham Font is the fix. As the home page puts it: No image to resize. No screenshot to clean up.
In Tamer’s own words on this site, the font comes from the same instinct: find a problem, make something useful, share it.
How was the symbol drawn for the font?
The starting point is the Central Bank’s own Dirham Currency Symbol Guideline. It asks for the symbol to sit before the amount with a space, at the same height as the text next to it, and not to appear side by side with “AED”.
The font follows that logic. The symbol sits on the baseline and is drawn to the font’s cap height (1,459 of 2,048 units), so it stands as tall as a capital letter, close to the lining numbers in many typefaces. You set only the symbol in Dirham and keep your numbers in the typeface you already use. That is how the prices on dirhamfont.com are built.
What’s inside the Dirham Font?
- One symbol, easy to reach. Type D or d with the font selected and you get the Dirham symbol. It is also mapped to the private-use code point U+E000.
- Three formats. OTF and TTF to install on Mac or Windows, and WOFF for websites. The font family is called “Dirham”.
- A clear licence. Personal and commercial use with a one-time purchase of 10 dirhams. No redistribution.
Who is the Dirham Font for?
Anyone who prices things in dirhams and wants the symbol to behave like text: cafés and restaurants with menus, salons and shops with price lists, freelancers and studios sending invoices and quotes, designers working in Canva, Figma or Adobe apps, and developers who want the symbol on a website without changing the rest of the typography.
If you are just getting started, read how to type the Dirham symbol in Word, Excel, Mac and Windows, then how to use it in Canva, Instagram and price lists.
Is there a Saudi Riyal version?
Yes. Tamer also designed Riyal Font for the new Saudi Riyal symbol, built the same way: type R and the symbol appears. Read the story behind Riyal Font.
Get Dirham Font for 10 dirhams
Keep reading: How to type the Dirham symbol in Word, Excel, Mac and Windows. Pricing in Saudi riyals too? The story behind Riyal Font.
Questions people ask
Who designed the Dirham Font?
Tamer Azab (TAMZ), a Dubai-based creative director and art director with 20+ years in branding, campaigns and digital product. His portfolio is at tamer.ae.
Is Dirham Font an official Central Bank font?
No. It is an independent font, not a Central Bank publication. The symbol follows the Central Bank of the UAE’s Dirham Currency Symbol Guideline.
Does Dirham Font use the new Unicode code U+20C3?
You type the symbol with D or d, or the private-use code U+E000. That works today in apps that let you choose a font, while device fonts catch up with U+20C3.
How much does Dirham Font cost?
10 dirhams, one time. The licence covers personal and commercial use.
Sources
- tamer.ae: Tamer Azab, Creative Director & Art Director (portfolio, about and case studies)
- dirhamfont.com: About the designer, product details and licence
- CBUAE press release: “CBUAE Unveils New Dirham Symbol…” (27 March 2025)
- CBUAE: Dirham Currency Symbol Guideline, v1.0 (PDF)
- Unicode: release dates (Unicode 18.0.0 — 16 September 2026)
- Unicode 18.0 code chart, Currency Symbols (U+20C3 UAE DIRHAM SIGN)