Arial

Arial is a special kind of printing letters called a sans-serif typeface. Many computers and programs use Arial because it comes built-in with Microsoft Windows starting from Windows 3.1, macOS, and works well with many PostScript 3 printers. Though Calibri took its place as the main font in Office 2007 for PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook, Arial is still widely used.

Two designers, Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, created Arial in 1982 for Monotype Typography. Arial looks very similar to another famous font called Helvetica, and it is made to fit exactly the same space. This means people often mistake Arial for Helvetica because they look almost the same.

Etymology

The name Arial comes from the word "aerial". It was made up by a company named Monotype.

Design characteristics

Arial is a modern sans-serif font. It has softer and fuller curves than many other fonts, so it looks less mechanical. Arial is very flexible and can be used for many things, like reports, presentations, magazines, newspapers, ads, and promotions.

Arial was made to be a simple, general sans-serif font. It is based on older font designs but changed to work better for long text and to make a complete family of fonts. The shapes of Arial's letters were partly inspired by other famous fonts, giving it a look that is similar but with softer curves.

History

In 1982, IBM introduced two printers for offices. These printers needed special letters and shapes, called fonts, to work with. A company named Monotype made these fonts. For one printer, they made a font called Arial to look like another popular font named Helvetica.

Later, Microsoft chose Arial to be one of the main fonts in its Windows 3.1 operating system in 1992. This helped Arial become very popular and widely used on computers. Microsoft helped improve Arial so it could work with many different languages and writing styles.

Distribution

Arial has been included with Microsoft Windows since 1992 and was the default font. From 1999 to 2016, Microsoft Office included a special version called Arial Unicode MS, which supported many international characters. This version is no longer used.

Arial MT, a version for PostScript printers, came with Acrobat Reader versions 4 and 5. Both Arial and Helvetica are supported by PostScript Level 3 printers.

macOS started including Arial with Mac OS X. macOS includes Arial, Arial Black, Arial Narrow, and Arial Rounded MT, but uses Helvetica as its default sans-serif font. Because Arial is included with Windows and macOS, it is one of the most used fonts in the world.

In 1996, Microsoft started the Core fonts for the Web project to provide standard fonts for the internet. Arial was part of this project, and people could download and install these fonts for free. The project ended in 2002. The latest version from this project was 2.82, published in 2000.

Arial variants

The Arial family has many different versions. Some well-known ones include Arial Regular, Arial Narrow, Arial Black, Arial Rounded, and Arial Unicode MS. Each version has its own style and use.

Arial Alternative Regular and Arial Alternative Symbol are special fonts used in older Windows versions like Windows ME, Windows 95, and Windows XP. These fonts have a unique design inspired by old teletext systems.

There are also special versions of Arial for different languages, such as Arial Baltic, Arial CE, and Arial Cyr. These adjust the characters to fit specific language needs.

Arial Nova is a newer version that goes back to the original design from 1982. It is available on Windows 10 and later and supports many languages including Cyrillic, Greek, and Turkish.

Monotype/Linotype retail versions

Arial

Arial is a kind of font. It has many styles, like bold and italic. It uses the same letters and symbols as older fonts used on old computers and web browsers.

Companies sell many versions of Arial. These versions can have rounded edges, more space between letters, and special letters for different languages.

Arial WGL

This version of Arial only has certain letters and symbols used on Windows computers. It is sold in one specific format and has several styles of Arial.

Ascender Corporation fonts

Another company sells Arial fonts. They sell versions that support many different languages.

Arial in other font families

Arial's designs are also used in fonts for languages that don't use Latin letters. These include Arabic Transparent, BrowalliaUPC, Cordia New, CordiaUPC, Miriam, Miriam Transparent, Monotype Hei, and Simplified Arabic.

Free alternatives

Arial is a special kind of letters made by a company named Monotype Imaging. Because it is special, people cannot change or share it for free.

But there are some free fonts that look very similar to Arial and can be used instead. These include:

• Liberation Sans, made by Ascender Corp. and shared by Red Hat in 2007. It is used in some computer systems as a replacement for Arial.
• Nimbus Sans L, made by URW++ in 1987. It is one of the free fonts that work like the classic Helvetica letters.
• FreeSans, a free font made from Nimbus Sans L. It is used in some free software as a replacement for Arial.
• TeX Gyre Heros, a free font also made from Nimbus Sans L. It was created by the Polish TeX Users Group and shared in 2007.

These fonts can be used when someone wants a free option that looks like Arial.