Thai font · FREE
Kinnari
Information verified as of July 2026
How to install & use
- Windows — Download the .zip, unzip it, then right-click the .ttf/.otf file → “Install”.
- macOS — Double-click the .ttf/.otf file, then click “Install Font” in Font Book.
- Web — Self-host the font files and declare them with @font-face in your CSS.
Preview Kinnari
Kinnari is a foundry/desktop font, so it can’t be embedded as a free webfont for a live preview here. See the specimen above for the real letterforms, or load your own text into the Thai Font Tester to compare it against the free Google Fonts alternatives.
What Kinnari is
Kinnari is a free, GPL-licensed transitional Thai serif — one of the three original National Fonts alongside Garuda and Norasi — with more refined, elegant looped letterforms than its siblings. It ships six styles including true italics and is free to download and redistribute.
According to Wikipedia’s National Fonts entry, Kinnari carries two copyright lines — “Db Type, 1999” and “National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, 2007” — reflecting a Db Type origin later adopted and released as a National Font by NECTEC, with ongoing maintenance under the GNU GPL by the Thai Linux Working Group.
For designers browsing the ThaiGraph font library, Kinnari is the dressier of the free National serifs: where Norasi is plain and bookish, Kinnari leans toward a more classical, transitional serif feel.
Character design and tone
Kinnari is a looped (มีหัว) Thai serif with visible stroke contrast and transitional serif detailing, giving it a more formal, literary tone than the plainer National sans faces. It reads as a considered book serif rather than a system font.
The looped consonant heads on ก, ถ and ภ are drawn with a graceful finish, and the contrast between thick and thin strokes gives Thai text a rhythm closer to a classical serif — the kind of texture we discuss in the Thai typography guide. Tone marks stay proportionate, so the vertical stack holds together in dense settings.
The Latin companion is a matching transitional serif with proper italics, which makes Kinnari a genuinely usable bilingual serif for formal documents and books.
Weights and availability
Kinnari ships Regular and Bold, each with italic and oblique companions — six TrueType files in total — and is free to download. Get it from the Thai Font Collection on GitHub, packaged with the other TLWG National Fonts.
The font is not on Google Fonts, but it is bundled in the fonts-tlwg package and installed by default on most Linux systems, making it broadly available for free Thai serif work.
Best use cases
Kinnari is the right choice when a Thai layout needs a free, formal, classical serif with a literary tone. Strong briefs:
- Thai books, anthologies and literary publishing needing a licence-free classical serif
- Formal certificates, invitations and programmes where a dressier serif fits
- Bilingual academic and cultural documents wanting matching Thai and Latin serifs
- Open-source and budget projects that need a more elegant free serif than Norasi
- Heritage and cultural design referencing the National Fonts programme
Where it doesn’t fit: screen-first UI and branding — for those, a modern OFL serif such as Taviraj or Trirong offers webfont builds and wider weights.
Pairings
Kinnari pairs with a quiet Thai body sans for supporting text, or with a modern serif when you need extra weights. Three pairings:
- Sarabun — OFL body sans for captions and tables beneath a Kinnari text serif
- Maitree — a modern OFL Thai serif to extend Kinnari’s classical tone with more weights
- Angsana New — the legacy Windows Thai serif for cross-platform office documents
Licensing
Kinnari is free software, released as a National Font by NECTEC and maintained by TLWG under the GNU General Public License, so it is free to use, modify and redistribute. Verify the terms in the fonts-tlwg licence file and download from the Thai Font Collection. For a modern SIL OFL Thai serif with webfont support, see Taviraj or browse the free fonts category.
Frequently asked questions about Kinnari
Is Kinnari free for commercial use?
Yes — Kinnari is free for both personal and commercial use. You can use it in client work, apps, products, and websites at no cost, and self-host or embed it. The only OFL condition is that you don’t sell the font files on their own.
How many weights does Kinnari have?
Kinnari ships in 2 weights: Regular, Bold. Pick a heavier weight for display and headlines, and a Regular or lighter weight for body text and long-form reading.
Does Kinnari support Latin and English characters?
Yes — Kinnari includes a Latin character set alongside Thai, so it can set English and Thai in one typeface. That makes it a practical choice for bilingual branding, packaging, and UI.
Where can I download Kinnari?
Get Kinnari from NECTEC / TLWG. Use the download/license button at the top of this page for the official source — avoid third-party font sites, which often ship outdated or unlicensed files.
What fonts are similar to Kinnari?
The closest alternatives to Kinnari are Taviraj, Trirong, Angsana New. They share a similar style and use case, so they’re the first faces to compare if you need a different weight range, license, or price.
Who designed Kinnari?
Kinnari was designed by Db Type / NECTEC at NECTEC / TLWG, released in 2007. Full designer credit and the primary source are listed at the bottom of this page.
Information verified as of July 2026
Sources
- Kinnari is one of the three original National Fonts (with Garuda and Norasi), a transitional serif carrying the copyright lines 'Copyright (C) 1999 Db Type' and 'Copyright (C) 2007 National Electronics and Computer Technology Center', maintained under the GNU GPL by the Thai Linux Working Group.—National Fonts — Wikipedia (accessed Jul 16, 2026)
- Kinnari is distributed as a free TrueType family in the Thai Font Collection, shipping Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic, Oblique and Bold Oblique styles.—Thai Font Collection (jeffmcneill) — nectec-tlwg folder (accessed Jul 16, 2026)