Arial: the Helvetica stand-in, and its free twin Arimo

Drawn to the same widths as Helvetica, shipped with Windows.

In use, with PT Serif

Edit the words to try your own. The pairing tool has more body fonts.

History

• Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders designed Arial for Monotype in 1982.[1]
• It is metrically compatible with Helvetica, so either can replace the other without changing a layout.[1]
• Arimo, commissioned by Google for ChromeOS, and Liberation Sans are free fonts with the same metrics.[1]

Who uses it

• Windows 3.1 (1992), as one of its four core TrueType fonts[1]
• Every version of Windows since[1]

Sources

1. 1. Wikipedia: Arial

The free alternative

Arimo was commissioned by Google for ChromeOS and has the same character widths as Arial, so text sets the same way.

Body fonts that go with Arimo:

• PT SerifA sturdy serif body with enough contrast to separate it from the plain heading.
• LoraCurvier serif shapes make up for how neutral the heading is.
• Open SansHumanist sans with open apertures, easier to read in long passages than a grotesque.

Other fonts

• TrajanRoman inscription capitals, and the movie poster font.
• HelveticaThe Swiss sans that ended up on subway signs and airline logos.
• FuturaThe 1927 geometric sans of circles and straight lines.
• GothamWide geometric capitals taken from New York building signs.
• ImpactA 1965 Sheffield display face that became the meme font.
• GaramondSixteenth century Paris type, revived many times since.
• Times New RomanMade for a London newspaper in 1932, then shipped with Windows.
• DidotHigh contrast French type, and the look of fashion magazines.
• BaskervilleA Birmingham printer’s sharper, lighter serif from the 1750s.
• Comic SansDrawn in 1994 for the speech bubbles in Microsoft Bob.
• CourierAn IBM typewriter face that screenplays never gave up.
• RobotoGoogle's Android system font since 2011.