The Arial® family started life in 1982 as a suite of low-resolution bitmap fonts developed for IBM’s new generation of high-speed IBM laser printers. The inspiration for the design came from a number of earlier Monotype sans serif typefaces.
The Arial family was re-drawn in 1987 for Monotype imagesetters. In the process, however, several characters were modified and character spacing was adjusted to meet the technical needs of current typesetting machines.
Arial Nova takes the design back to its roots. Character spacing has been adjusted and a number of understated modifications were made to the design. The result is three weights of roman design with standard proportions and three weights of condensed – all with complementary italic designs. The Arial Nova family is also compatible with the fonts Microsoft® provides in the Windows® 10 operating system.
