The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Arimo
A free alternative to Arial.
About Arimo
Arimo is Steve Matteson's metric-compatible open sans-serif, released on Google Fonts in 2010 as the webfont incarnation of Liberation Sans. Every character occupies exactly the width its Arial counterpart does, and the line metrics match as well, so text set in one reflows identically in the other. The drawing follows the same neo-grotesque model — closed apertures, level terminals, and the deliberately unexpressive rhythm that makes Arial invisible on a page.
That turns the substitution for Arial into a mechanical operation rather than an approximation. Documents and layouts built around Arial keep their line breaks, page breaks, and pagination when Arimo takes over, which is the whole value: fidelity, not reinterpretation. Reach for it when a file or design has to survive being rendered on a machine that doesn't have Arial licensed — templates, PDFs, web builds, and office documents crossing between platforms.
- Designer
- Steve Matteson
- Released
- 2010
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
Arimo is also a free alternative to…
- Arial → The metric-compatible open clone of Arial, derived from Liberation Sans (which isn't on Google Fonts — Arimo is its webfont incarnation). Documents and layouts set in Arial reflow identically.
- Helvetica Neue → Metric-compatible with Arial, which was itself drawn to match Helvetica's widths, so Arimo drops into Helvetica Neue layouts with almost no reflow. Its angled stroke endings on letters like t, r and a are the giveaway; the texture is Helvetica, the details are Arial.
- Core Sans → A neo-grotesque with Helvetica-style metrics and the same calm, workhorse tone as Core Sans N. It is limited to four styles and one width, so it suits body text rather than the full display-to-caption system, and its terminals are a touch more horizontal and closed.
- Aileron → A Helvetica and Arial metric-compatible grotesque from Steve Matteson, so it occupies the exact same space Aileron aims at. It keeps the stiffer Arial-style terminals and standard spacing where Aileron rounds its dots, curves the lowercase l and opens the fit for text.
- Neue Haas Unica → Steve Matteson's Helvetica-metric sans brings the closest match to the Helvetica side of Unica's ancestry, with near-identical widths and a similarly closed, neutral character. It stops at four styles and lacks Unica's warmth and sharpened terminals, but it drops into any layout built for Helvetica without reflow.
- Nimbus Sans Extended → Metrically compatible with Arial and therefore close to Helvetica's widths, Arimo matches the regular Nimbus Sans proportions rather than the extended cut. It is the right choice when you need the same neo-grotesque skeleton in text sizes and can fake width with tracking.
- Untitled Sans → Steve Matteson's metric-compatible stand-in for Arial is the archetype of a grotesque nobody notices, which is precisely the Super Normal quality Untitled Sans pursues. It is limited to four styles, so it cannot cover the Light or Black ends, and its terminals are more angled than Untitled Sans's horizontal cuts.
- Arial Nova → Steve Matteson's metric-compatible Arial stand-in, released under the Apache license and served from Google Fonts. It matches the widths and feel of classic Arial, so it reproduces the register Arial Nova refines, though it keeps the original spacing rather than Nova's loosened fit and lacks the condensed styles.
- Helvetica Now → Steve Matteson designed Arimo to match Arial's metrics, and Arial shares Helvetica's character widths. That makes Arimo a drop-in for Helvetica layouts. Its letterforms are more humanist, with angled terminals in places, so it matches the fit better than Helvetica Now's refined shapes.
Display + body that work together
Headlines that read at a glance
A pairing is a relationship: one voice speaks first, the other answers, and the contrast between them sets the tone for the whole page.
Modern · Editorial Arimo + Source Serif 4
Quiet type that does the work
Body type does the heavy lifting. Get it right and the reader never thinks about it; get it wrong and they feel it before they can name what is off.
Editorial · Modern Playfair Display + Arimo