The History Behind Arial: Helvetica Ripoff or Inspired Design?

History, in general, is full of facts that are subject to personal interpretation and not always solely based on concrete data. The same can be said for the history of Arial font; ripoff or inspired design? We decided to take a look at this debate and share what we’ve learned.

If you are a designer or typographer chances are you have developed your own opinions. For the professional the answer may seem obvious, Arial is a knockoff of Helvetica. But at a closer glance, the nuances of Arial typeface do set it apart

Evolution of Typeface Design: A Historical Perspective

Indeed, the history behind arial fonts is one that is indicative of the slow, but purposeful, bureaucracy that is typeface design. Unlike other areas of graphic design, typography has evolved gradually over centuries, with key moments often tied to technological advancements and cultural shifts. This deliberate evolution has resulted in typefaces that masterfully juggle form, function, stylistic finesse and legibility, keeping them fresh and in demand even decades later.

The invention of Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press in the mid-15th century ignited one of the first major leaps in typeface evolution. This key invention shifted the landscape of text creation and distribution. That revolution brought printed text within the worlds people could reach—and it called for typefaces that were both economical to manufacture and legible.

Until recently, serif fonts dominated print media. With the advent of sans serif typefaces in the 19th century, a new epoch of modern typography began. These styles, sometimes referred to as “grotesque” because of their harshly simple appearance, laid the foundation for more adaptable designs that included popular typefaces like Helvetica and Arial alternatives.

In 1916, Edward Johnston designed that same sort of iconic (sans serif) typeface for the London Underground. This decisive turn had a lasting impact on twentieth-century type design. Ultimately designed for clarity and functionality, this typeface is still in use today, a testament to the lasting power of good design, which can also be seen in Arial styling.

By the mid-20th century, sans serif fonts were all the rage. This sudden rise in popularity was largely due to the introduction of Helvetica in 1957, designed by Max Miedinger. Helvetica’s simple, neutral aesthetic made it equally at home in corporate logos and public wayfinding, ensuring its place among one of the most iconic typefaces of the modern era.

Arial, developed in the late 1980s, is a neo-grotesque typeface very much in that tradition. It was intended as a partial functional equivalent to Monotype Arial. This OpenType font family with a highly cohesive appearance consists of 14 point sizes and four style/weight combinations, which makes 56 unique fonts, including Arial italic and Arial bold.

Its design emphasis on regularized proportions lends itself to body text but also rendition across a wide spectrum of uses. Arial’s Arabic glyphs are based on Times New Roman’s Arabic glyphs. They also display a wider range of stroke weights than Arial’s Latin glyphs, showcasing the versatility of Arial font substitution.

The digital age ushered in yet another turning point in 1996 with Microsoft’s Core fonts for the Web project. Arial wasn’t just part of this package; it assured its widespread adoption as the de facto standard font for all online content. This decision made Arial the default typeface of digital typography, cementing its role in modern design.

It also demonstrated how industrial innovation has always dictated the form and function of typefaces, influencing everything from Arial rounded to Arial narrow, and reinforcing the importance of accessibility in typography.

Historical Precedents: Tracing the Roots of Typeface Design

Arial’s creation is deeply connected to the complex history of typeface design. What’s always changed by cultural needs and technological advancements have been methods of communication and visual communication. To understand Arial’s place in this lineage, let’s look at its history.

One, we’ll look at the forces that inspired its founding. Every single decision shows the depth of consideration and craftsmanship that is applied to every typeface’s ability to be functional and flexible.

The foundation for most modern typefaces, including Arial, owes a great deal to historical designs such as Times New Roman. The Times of London was the first to adopt Times New Roman in 1932. It was immediately celebrated for its legibility and economy, especially in print.

Its stroke contrasts and proportions were elegantly designed by the type designers for optimum legibility on newsprint. This medium also poses great challenges as seen through the ink and paper quality. What’s curious about its widespread use is that American publishers were first reluctant to use it.

Times New Roman needs higher-quality paper and more ink to display its finer details. Yet many U.S. Newspapers at the time were unwilling to invest in such an endeavor. This design also influenced non-Latin scripts such as Arabic glyphs. They adopted its sharp points and pronounced contrast between thin and thick strokes yet stayed true to form by following the Latin alphabet.

These adaptations are a great example of how typefaces tend to adapt to new linguistic and technological needs. Arial’s development in 1982 by Monotype’s team, led by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, built upon this tradition while addressing the digital needs of the era.

In reality, Arial was designed for IBM’s 3800–3 printer, which had high resolution. It was digitized at a stunning 240 DPI, a huge accomplishment for that time period. It was only natural for its design to be informed by equally practical considerations, namely, making sure it was compatible with the emerging technologies and operating systems.

Arial’s initial core fonts, such as Arial Bold and Arial Italics, were later improved upon. They currently support a wide character set that includes around 95% of the Unicode standard. This universality made it a popular choice in platforms like Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 5, cementing its place in the digital landscape.

Ultimately, Arial is a very modern, very streamlined typeface, and its name reflects that. Taken from “aerial,” it was first used as a trademark by Monotype to suggest a feeling of lightness and openness.

The new typeface immediately ignited a renewed debate about Helvetica. Matthew Carter once infamously referred to it as a “Helvetica clone,” as it somewhat resembles the Grots 215 and 216 designs. Discussions about these parallels underscore the continued relevance of typeface design today.

Designers are frequently inspired more by the challenge of improving upon an idea than inventing one from scratch.

Helvetica: A Modern Classic Emerges

Helvetica’s narrative starts with its establishment foundation on neo-grotesque design, a style noted for its smoothness and overall usefulness. This design movement was heavily influenced by Akzidenz-Grotesk, a typeface created in the late 1800s. It blended those influences with aspects of other German and Swiss type design traditions, paving the way for popular typeface Helvetica.

Developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, Helvetica brought a fresh, modern approach to typography by emphasizing clean lines and uniform character widths. Its original design as an all-purpose font—where legibility was the main objective—yielded a highly flexible typeface, suitable everywhere from street signs to corporate logos, and even as a safe font alternative.

Helvetica became the typeface of choice in advertising throughout the mid-20th century. This wave cemented it as a versatile yet ubiquitous typeface. It had a strong appeal to designers and brands alike, looking for a modern, neutral style that could work across a variety of visual landscapes, making it a go-to choice for arial alternatives.

This influence reached beyond Western alphabets, inspiring the creation of similar simplified typefaces for non-Latin scripts, including Thai. Helvetica’s malleability had become a siren call to graphic designers far and wide. That was particularly the case during the 1970s, when Modernist principles reigned supreme over the design world, further encouraging the exploration of serif fonts.

It became ubiquitous not only for its design charm. Its practicality was a huge factor too, particularly when it became free and available on personal computers. This kind of accessibility helped Helvetica reach a level of ubiquity that few typefaces can even come close to rivaling, especially among designers seeking arial font substitution.

Funnily enough, Helvetica’s cultural impact even made it to the pantheon of humor. In 2011, Google engineered an April Fools’ Day prank around Helvetica. Though a cute homage, it revealed how far the font had seeped into popular culture, highlighting its status as a master font in modern design.

This newfound attention wasn’t all positive. In the 1990s, desktop publishing software democratized the design process. The introduction of Arial opened a floodgate of substitute typefaces that offered designers a world of attractive alternatives. Helvetica’s clean, Swiss design started to lose its luster in a new age that favored the addition of customization and personality in type, leading to a rise in arial regular usage.

Helvetica remained the default system font all the way through OS X 10.10. Subsequent Apple updates replaced it with San Francisco. Neue Helvetica would go on to have a central role in corporate branding, maintaining its relevance in the evolving landscape of typeface families.

For decades companies such as IBM have relied on it as their corporate typeface. IBM was said to have paid more than $1 million per year in licensing fees before moving off it in 2017. That’s why Helvetica is still a big deal—because, for all intents and purposes, Helvetica is Arial.

Arial was originally developed for IBM and is used extensively by Microsoft. Arial has become notorious for being a “Helvetica clone.” Its almost impossible to tell apart style underscores the destructive power of the original font, making it a significant player in the realm of computer fonts.

Arial: Innovation or Imitation?

When was Arial font created? The introduction of Arial font substitution in 1982 sparked controversy within the typographic community. While its creators, Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, positioned Arial as an original design, its striking resemblance to the popular typeface Helvetica raised eyebrows. Critics argued that Arial's similarities amounted to little more than a copycat strategy, challenging notions of authenticity and artistic integrity.

While Arial has been criticized for being a scourge of typography, it remains a popular choice for advertising and promotions. Its design closely mirrors Helvetica's proportions and stroke width, making it a cohesive font family for various design projects. The versatility of Arial, including its Arial narrow and bold variants, has led to its widespread use in magazines and other media.

Another well-known sans-serif font, Gill Sans, is often compared to Arial in terms of design. However, Arial's terminal strokes and overall look set it apart from other fonts in the same category. Its clean and modern design makes it a font of choice for many designers, alongside Calibri, another popular font from the Arial family.

Despite its success, Arial continues to be overshadowed by fonts like Times New Roman and Monotype Grotesque. However, its close resemblance to Helvetica and wide availability have solidified its place as a key font in modern design.

The Rise of Digital Typography: Implications for Design Ethics

The proliferation of digital typography in the late 20th century transformed the landscape of graphic design. As technology made typefaces like Arial and its alternatives more accessible and customizable, questions of ownership and attribution became increasingly complex. The case of Arial versus the popular typeface Helvetica exemplifies these tensions, prompting discussions about intellectual property rights and ethical standards in design practice.

Helvetica font vs Arial

History of Helvetica

Helvetica typeface was designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger. Miedinger based his design on that of Akzidenz Grotesk 1896 which was classified as Grotesque san serif face.

Arial history

In 1982, Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders created the Arial typeface, a popular typeface known for its Neo Grotesque style, for Monotype. Essentially, it’s an “original” design that shares exactly the same proportions and weight as another typeface, as Mark Simonson notes. In other words, it’s an Arial font substitution with very few differences, making it hard to call it a unique typeface.

Arial is everywhere!

Some say that Arial was created by Microsoft for their Windows 3.1 so that they could avoid paying licensing fees and save money. Whatever you choose to believe, you most likely use Arial everyday without thinking about it much. The popularity of Windows 3.1 has made Arial a household name. Microsoft understood that the average person could not tell the difference between Helvitica and Arial and -more importantly- they would not care. It seems they were right in their thinking.

Today, a version of Arial font can be seen everywhere, from academic papers to business cards to advertising design, and has knocked Helvetica out of the top spot for the last 30 years. The Arial vs Helvetica debate is still strong amongst those in the typography industry and font historians. (Also among designers and Type lovers!) The best way to get a sense of the similarities and differences is to place the typefaces side by side. Only individual tastes can say which font reigns supreme.

The Differences: Under the microscope!

Let’s take a look at the lower case “a” side by side. What do we see? In Helvetica, the lowercase “a” has a tail unlike the Arial version which does not. If we put capital C’s side by side, we can see that in Helvetica the ends of the strokes of letters like “C” are perfectly horizontal. In the case of Arial, the ends of the “C” are cut at a slight angle.

The differences are subtle, but they are apparent. Some may say that if Arial is a rip-off of Helvetica, then Helvetica is a rip-off of Akzidenz Grotesk, or we could simply say that they are both rip-offs of earlier Grotesque faces. As in most areas of life, there are very few originals, just adaptations. After all, imitation is the best form of flattery, right?

Ripoff or inspired design?

The choice is really yours, we just had fun presenting it to you! Remember you can use any of these fonts on the 4over4.com online design tool which offers custom trims and countless print templates for all your design needs.

Tell us which typeface you would choose for your print designs. Our curious minds want to know!

FAQs

Q: What is the difference between a serif and a sans serif font?

A serif font features decorative lines or strokes at the ends of characters, contrasting with generic sans serif fonts, which lack these ornamental details.

Q: Why did Microsoft choose Arial as its default font for Windows?

Microsoft chose Arial, a popular typeface, because it is a contemporary sans serif font that offers excellent accessibility and is easy to read on screens and in print.

Q: Is Arial part of the Helvetica font family?

A: Arial is not part of the Helvetica font family, but it does share some similarities with Helvetica in terms of proportions and stroke width.

Q: What is the significance of the Arial font family in typography?

Arial is a widely used font family known for its clean and modern appearance, making it a popular choice for a variety of design projects, especially among designers seeking arial alternatives.

Q: Can you explain the relationship between Arial and Helvetica?

Arial, a popular typeface, was designed to mimic some of Helvetica's proportions and stroke characteristics, yet it remains distinct from this proprietary typeface.

Q: Why is Arial sometimes referred to as the "scourge of typography"?

A: Some designers criticize Arial for its lack of originality and for being overused, leading to its nickname as the "scourge of typography."

Q: Who created Arial font?

Arial font, created by Monotype Typography in 1982 as a popular typeface alternative to Helvetica, is a sans-serif typeface known for its softer and fuller treatment of curves. Often serving as the default typeface in many applications, Arial is also a core font in Microsoft Windows operating systems, making it a safe font choice.

Q: What are some other fonts in the Arial font family?

Other fonts in the Arial font family, including Arial Black and Arial MT, are popular typeface variants and extensions of the original Arial typeface.