Typeface	Arial
Category	Sans-serif
Classifications	Neo-grotesque sans-serif
Designer(s)	Robin Nicholas Patricia Saunders
Foundry	Monotype Imaging

Arial, sometimes marketed as Arial MT, is a sans-serif typeface and computer font packaged with Microsoft Windows, other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X, and many PostScript computer printers. The typeface was designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders for Monotype Typography, with Type Solutions Inc. holding copyright (the Type Solutions Inc. copyright lasted until version 5.00). Look up Aerial in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Aerial may refer to— a dance move. ... Not to be confused with Aerial or Arial. ... “Font” redirects here. ... “Font” redirects here. ... In typography, serifs are the small features at the end of strokes within letters. ... In typography, serifs are the small features at the end of strokes within letters. ... A type designer is a person who designs typefaces. ... A type foundry is a company that designs and/or distributes typefaces. ... Monotype Imaging, Inc is a typesetting and typeface design company (type foundry) responsible for many developments in printing technology — in particular the Monotype machine which was the first fully mechanical typesetter — and the design and production of typefaces in the 19th and 20th centuries. ... In typography, serifs are the small features at the end of strokes within letters. ... “Font” redirects here. ... In typography, a typeface is a co-ordinated set of character designs, which usually comprises an alphabet of letters, a set of numerals and a set of punctuation marks. ... Windows redirects here. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Software redirects here. ... Apple Inc. ... Mac OS X (pronounced ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... For the literary term, see Postscript. ... A computer printer, or more commonly a printer, produces a hard copy (permanent human-readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. ... Monotype Imaging, Inc is a typesetting and typeface design company (type foundry) responsible for many developments in printing technology — in particular the Monotype machine which was the first fully mechanical typesetter — and the design and production of typefaces in the 19th and 20th centuries. ...

Arial is also a typeface family comprising standard Arial (Arial Std) and variants, including Arial Black, Bold, Extra Bold, Condensed, Italic, Light, Medium, Monospaced, Narrow, and Rounded.

History

Arial was originally known as Sonoran Sans Serif^[1]. It acquired its current name when Microsoft started to include it in Windows.^[2]

Version 2.76 or later includes Hebrew and Arabic glyphs, with most of Arabic added on non-italic fonts.

Version 5.00 added support for Latin-C and Latin D, IPA Extension, Greek Extended, Cyrillic Supplement, Coptic characters.

Design characteristics

Helvetica (in red) overlaid with Arial (in blue)

Embedded in version 3.0 of the OpenType version of Arial is the following description of the typeface: Image File history File links Arial_Helvetica_overlay2. ... Image File history File links Arial_Helvetica_overlay2. ... OpenType is a scalable format for computer fonts (also sometimes known interchangeably as typefaces), initially developed by Microsoft, later joined by Adobe Systems. ...

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.

Though nearly identical to Linotype Helvetica in both proportion and weight (see figure), the design of Arial is in fact a variation of Monotype Grotesque,^[3] and was designed for IBM's laserxerographic printer.^[2] Subtle changes and variations were made to both the letterforms and the spacing between characters, in order to make it more readable on screen and at various resolutions. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Linotype machine. ... This article is about the typeface Helvetica. ... Monotype Grotesque is a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Frank Hinman Pierpont (1860–1937) and released by the Monotype foundry in 1926. ... 1993 Apple LaserWriter Pro 630 laser printer A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. ...

The styling of Arabic glyphs comes from Times New Roman, which have more varied stroke widths than the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic glyphs found in the font. Arial Unicode MS uses monotone stroke widths on Arabic glyphs, similar to Tahoma. The Times New Roman typeface, on top at 88. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... In digital typography, Arial Unicode MS is an extended version of the OpenType font Arial. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and others. ... For other uses, see Tahoma. ...

The Cyrillic, Greek and Coptic, Spacing Modifier Letters glyphs initially introduced in Arial Unicode MS, but later debuted in Arial version 5.00, have different appearances. The Coptic alphabet is an alphabet used for writing the Coptic language. ...

Distribution

Arial was introduced as a TrueType font in 1990, and as a PostScript font in 1991.^{[citation needed]} The TrueType edition has shipped as part of Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 3.1 in 1992.^[4] TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobes Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. ... A typical Windows 3. ...

Since 1999, Microsoft Office has shipped with Arial Unicode MS, a version of Arial that includes many international characters from the Unicode standard. This version of the typeface is the most widely distributed pan-Unicode font. Microsoft Office is an office suite from Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems. ... In digital typography, Arial Unicode MS is an extended version of the OpenType font Arial. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ...

Arial MT, a PostScript version of the Arial font family, was distributed with Acrobat Reader 4 and 5. Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software by Adobe Systems. ...

PostScript does not require support for a specific set of fonts, but Arial and Helvetica are among the 40 or so typeface families that PostScript Level 3 devices typically support.^[5][6]

Mac OS X, first released for the desktop in 2001, was the first Mac OS version to include Arial. The operating system ships with Arial, Arial Black, Arial Narrow, and Arial Rounded MT. Mac OS X (pronounced ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... This article relates to both the original Classic Mac OS as well as Mac OS X, Apples more recent operating system. ...

The inclusion of Arial with Windows has made it one of the most widely distributed and used typefaces in the world.

Retail fonts

Ascender Coporation sells the TrueType format of the fonts commercially. The Ascender fonts have 'WGL' at the end of the font name for the Arial and Arial Narrow families, and cover only the Windows Glyph List (WGL) characters.

In addition, Monotype also sells Arial in reduced character sets, such as Arial CE, Arial WGL, Arial Cyrillic, Arial Greek, Arial Hebrew, Arial Thai.The type of language used by the computer is only binary but Arial is a converted font.

Arial variants

Here are the known variations of Arial:

• Arial: Sometimes called Arial Regular to distinguish its width from Arial Narrow, it contains Arial (Roman text weight), Arial Italic, Arial Bold, Arial Bold Italic, and Arial Unicode MS
• Arial Black: Arial Black, Arial Black Italic. This weight is known for being particularly heavy. This is because the face was originally drawn as a bitmap, and to increase the weight, stroke widths for bold went from a single pixel width to two pixels in width.
• Arial Narrow: Arial Narrow Regular, Arial Narrow Bold, Arial Narrow Italic, Arial Narrow Bold Italic. This family is a condensed version.
• Arial Rounded: Arial Rounded Bold. The regular versions of the rounded glyphs can be found in Gulim, Microsoft's Korean font set.
• Arial Special: Arial Special G1, Arial Special G2. They are included with Microsoft Encarta Virtual Globe 99, Expedia Streets and Trips 2000, MapPoint 2000.

Arial, sometimes marketed as Arial MT, is a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface and computer font packaged with Microsoft Windows, other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X, and many PostScript computer printers. ...

Arial Alternative

Arial Alternative Regular and Arial Alternative Symbol are standard fonts in Windows Me, and can also be found in Windows 95 and Windows XP's installation CD, or in Microsoft's site[1]. Both fonts are Symbol-encoded. These fonts emulate the monospaced font used in Minitel/Prestel teletext systems, but vectorized with Arial styling. The fonts are used by HyperTerminal. Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (IPA pronunciation: [miː], [ɛm iː]), is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft. ... Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ... Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ... Minitel 1. ... Prestel, the brand name for the British General Post Offices Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979. ... A BBC Ceefax page from January 9, 2007. ... HyperTerminal is a communications program bundled with multiple versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. ...

Arial Alternative Regular contains only ASCII characters, while Arial Alternative Symbol contains only 2x3 braille characters. Listen to this article ( info/dl) This audio file was created from a revision dated 2006-09-06, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

Code page variants

Arial Baltic, Arial CE, Arial Cyr, Arial Greek, Arial Tur are aliases created in the FontSubstitutes section of WIN.INI by Windows. These entries all point to the master font. When an alias font is specified, the font's character map contains different character set from the master font and the other alias fonts.

In addition, Monotype also sells Arial in reduced character sets, such as Arial CE, Arial WGL, Arial Cyrillic, Arial Greek, Arial Hebrew, Arial Thai.

Arial Unicode is a version supporting all characters assigned with Unicode 2.1 code points.

Arial in other font families

Arial glyphs are also used in fonts developed for non-Latin environments, including Arabic Transparent, BrowalliaUPC, Cordia New, CordiaUPC, Miriam, Miriam Transparent, Monotype Hei, Simplified Arabic.

Criticism/Similar fonts

Arial is held in disregard by some professional typographers and type enthusiasts, for reasons relating to its similarity to other typefaces and the involvement of Microsoft in its development and distribution.^[7] It is reinforced by Arial's apparent status as a de facto Helvetica stand-in, but without paying royalties, or credit, to Helvetica. Arial's glyph widths are nearly identical to those of Helvetica,^[7][8] rather than Monotype Grotesque, on which Arial is otherwise based, and many people are unable to tell the difference between Helvetica, Arial and other similar fonts. However, there are a number of fonts which are direct copies of Helvetica that different type manufacturers have created, including Triumvirate, Helios, Megaron, and Newton.^[7]

See also

• Core fonts for the Web

Core fonts for the Web was a project started by Microsoft in 1996 to make a standard pack of fonts for the Internet. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 267th day of the year (268th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 267th day of the year (268th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 67th day of the year (68th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 242nd day of the year (243rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events of 2008: (EMILY) Me Lesley and MIley are going to China! This article is about the year. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 119th day of the year (120th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 119th day of the year (120th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 119th day of the year (120th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 119th day of the year (120th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Arial font information (Microsoft typography)
• Arial Black font information (Microsoft typography)
• Arial Special: G1, G2 (Microsoft typography)
• Downloadable version of Arial (Web core fonts)
• Downloadable version of Arial Black (Web core fonts)