Arial
Arial
Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, 1982
Sans-serif · A default. Something nobody chose.
Drawn at Monotype with the same widths as Helvetica so it could substitute for it without reflowing a document, which is the entire commercial logic: Microsoft could ship a Helvetica-compatible face without paying Linotype for Helvetica. Typographers' dislike of it is really a dislike of that origin. The letterforms it borrowed its details from are Monotype Grotesque, not Helvetica.
How to tell it apart
| Mistaken for | Which letters to check |
|---|---|
| Helvetica | Capital R — straight angled leg on Helvetica, curved on Arial. Lowercase t — flat top on Helvetica, angled cut on Arial. Capital G — Helvetica has a spur, Arial does not. Terminals on C, S and e are horizontal on Helvetica and angled on Arial. |
The facts
- Designed by
- Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders
- Released
- 1982
- Classification
- Sans-serif
- What it signals now
- A default. Something nobody chose.
Where you have seen it
- Windows, since 3.1
- Google's logo until 2015 used a serif, but its interface used this for years
Other typefaces from the 1980s
| Typeface | Year | Designer | What it signals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Papyrus | 1982 | Chris Costello | A smoothie bar, a yoga studio, or Avatar. |
| Chicago | 1984 | Susan Kare | The original Macintosh, and the first iPod. |
| Trajan | 1989 | Carol Twombly | A film poster. Specifically a serious one, or a legal drama. |
This page describes the typeface rather than showing it. Displaying a specimen requires a licensed font file and almost none of these may be redistributed, so the descriptions name the letters to look at instead.
Common questions
- Who designed Arial?
- Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, in 1982.
- What is Arial used for?
- A default. Something nobody chose. You will have seen it on Windows, since 3.1, Google's logo until 2015 used a serif, but its interface used this for years.
- What is the difference between Arial and Helvetica?
- Capital R — straight angled leg on Helvetica, curved on Arial. Lowercase t — flat top on Helvetica, angled cut on Arial. Capital G — Helvetica has a spur, Arial does not. Terminals on C, S and e are horizontal on Helvetica and angled on Arial.
Related pages
- Helvetica Routinely mistaken for this one
- Typefaces from the 1980s 4 here
- Akzidenz-Grotesk H. Berthold AG, 1896
- Franklin Gothic Morris Fuller Benton, 1902
- Johnston Edward Johnston, 1916
- Futura Paul Renner, 1927
- Gill Sans Eric Gill, 1928
- Helvetica Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, 1957
- Univers Adrian Frutiger, 1957
- Optima Hermann Zapf, 1958
Sources
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place