Dr. Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès is Founding Director of the Khatt Foundation and Khatt Books publishers. She holds degrees in design and design history from Leiden University (PhD, 2017), Yale University (MFA, 1990), and Rhode Island School of Design (BFA, 1987).

She was a jury member of the Third Jameel Prize for Islamic Art and Design 2013 (Victoria & Albert Museum, London), and member of the grants selection committee for Mondrian Foundation (2011-2012) and The Netherlands Architecture and Design Fund (2013). She is a member of AGI (Alliance Typographique Internationale). Dr. Smitshuijzen AbiFarès specializes in multilingual typographic research and design, with a focus on Arabic typography and design history. She has taught design and typography courses in the Arab world and internationally since 1994.

She has published several books and essays on typography and design from the Arab world, and contributed essays to professional and academic publications. Dr. Smitshuijzen AbiFarès is the author of Arabic Typography: A Comprehensive Sourcebook (2001), Typographic Matchmaking (2007), Typographic Matchmaking in the City (2011), Arabic Type Design for Beginners (2013), Nomadic Traces: Journeys of Arabian Scripts (2019), Kameel Hawa: The Art of Shaping Arabic Letters (2019), Typographic Matchmaking in the Maghrib (forthcoming) and The Catholic Press of Beirut: A Printing and Design Legacy in the Arab East (forthcoming). Dr. Smitshuijzen AbiFarès works as an independent design curator, researcher, writer, designer and publisher.