Arial
Arial
Released: 1982
Foundry: Monotype
Designers: Robin Nicholas, Patricia Saunders
Originally, each character of Arial was designed to have the exact same metrics as Helvetica, a similar grotesk sans that was installed on many early IBM PCs. By matching the metrics, documents originally designed on a Helvetica-enabled device could be opened by substituting Arial, allowing documents to retain all of the proper line widths, returns and other type characteristics without denigrating the quality of the typography.
Serif typefaces are often described as having “feet” at the ends of their stems, thus distinguishing them from their sans-serif counterparts. So, like a mermaid, Arial here is depicted as a friendly face lacking any “feet.”