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Arial
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Arial is a sans-serif typeface in the neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 3.1, as well as in other Microsoft programs, Apple's macOS, and many PostScript 3 printers. In Office 2007, Arial was replaced by Calibri as the default typeface in PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.

Key facts

Font.name
Arial
Font.image
ArialMTsp.svg
Font.style
Sans-serif
Font.classifications
Neo-grotesque
Font.releasedate
1982
Font.foundry
Monotype Corporation
Font.license
Proprietary
Font.arabic
yes
Font.cyrillic
yes
Font.devangari
yes
Font.greek
yes
Font.hebrew
yes
Font.hindi
yes
Font.ipa
yes
Font.latin
yes
Font.variations
Arial Unicode MS

via Wikipedia infobox

Described at

Arial font family - Typography | Microsoft Learn

Typographic info for the Arial font family

learn.microsoft.com

A contemporary sans serif design, Arial contains more humanist characteristics than many of its predecessors and as such is more in tune with the mood of the last decades of the twentieth century. The overall treatment of curves is softer and fuller than in most industrial style sans serif faces. Terminal strokes are cut on the diagonal which helps to give the face a less mechanical appearance. Arial is an extremely versatile family of typefaces which can be used with equal success for text setting in reports, presentations, magazines etc, and for display use in newspapers, advertising and promotions. Arial was originally designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas of Monotype, as a sans serif typeface for low-resolution laser printers; it was later developed, with Patricia Saunders of the Monotype drawing office, into a full typeface family, which Microsoft licensed as one of the core set of fonts for Windows 3.1 in 1992. Version 2.55 - This WGL4 version of Arial was first supplied with the Final Windows 95 euro update that shipped on 4 November 1998. This version contains the euro. Version 2.50 - This version of Arial is supplied with European versions of Windows 98. North American users can add it by installing multilanguage support. This version contains the euro. Version 2.01 - This special version of Arial is only supplied with the beta version of the Windows 95 euro update patch. Version 2.00 (Win ANSI) - This Win ANSI version of Arial is supplied with Windows 95. Version 2.00 (WGL4) - This WGL4 version of Arial is supplied with Windows 95 and Windows NT4. This version does not contain the euro. Version 1.00 - This version was supplied with Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. This typeface is also available within Office applications. For more information visit this page. Want to try using Ask Learn to clarify or guide you through this topic? Ask Learn is an AI assistant that can answer questions, clarify concepts, and define terms using trusted Microsoft documentation.

Excerpt from a page describing this subject · 7,647 chars · not written by Vinony

Wikidata facts

Image
ArialMTsp.svg
Show 4 more facts
Commons category
Arial
publication date
1982-01-01
inception
1982-00-00
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~16 min read

Article

17 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Design characteristics
  • History
  • Distribution
  • Arial variants
  • Arial Alternative
  • Code page variants
  • Arial Nova
  • Monotype/Linotype retail versions
  • Arial
  • Arial WGL
  • Ascender Corporation fonts
  • Arial in other font families
  • Free alternatives
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Arial is a sans-serif typeface in the neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 3.1, as well as in other Microsoft programs, Apple's macOS, and many PostScript 3 printers. In Office 2007, Arial was replaced by Calibri as the default typeface in PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.

The typeface was designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, for Monotype Typography. It is metrically compatible with Helvetica, enabling documents to use either typeface without affecting the visual layout. Because of their similar appearance, Arial and Helvetica are commonly mistaken for each other.

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