Aida Sakkal

Aida Sakkal specialises in developing and programming font systems to model the artistic tendencies of beautifully handwritten calligraphy. She has worked extensively with OpenType since 2001 and has been involved in the growth and advancement of OpenType and its application to Arabic fonts. With a degree in computer science from the University of Washington, her other focus is on developing tools to aid and automate the font creation process.

Aida works with his father, Dr. Mamoun Sakkal, as Sakkal Design, a father–daughter studio in Bothell, Washington focused on Arabic calligraphy and typography since the 1990s. Their clients include Adobe, Amazon, Apple Inc., Linotype, Microsoft, and Monotype, among others; they were also commissioned to design the corporate Arabic typefaces for Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and Armani Hotel. The firm has been the Arabic language expert for Microsoft for more than 20 years, and several of their Arabic fonts are now widely used as Microsoft Windows system fonts. Their original fonts have won multiple awards, including six awards of excellence from the Type Directors Club of New York, six awards from Granshan competition, and others.

Aida and Mamoun Sakkal have published Sakkal Saad with TypeTogether in 2025.