Areal

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This is the website for Areal, a new typeface custom-made by Dinamo for Are.na. In type design terms, Areal is a “revival” of Arial, entirely redrawn and rebuilt from the ground up. We could also call it a “refresh,” like the refresh of a webpage — still the same typeface but now the most current version of itself.¹

Unlike the older analog typefaces that typically get the type revival treatment, Arial has always been a digital typeface, born in the computer age. In 1982 it was commissioned by IBM and designed by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders² at Monotype. (As the story goes, IBM wanted a typeface similar to Helvetica for their new laser printer, because Helvetica, designed by Linotype, was being used by Xerox on their new laser printer.) In 1992, Arial was included on the Windows 3.1 operating system, making it a default font on millions of the first personal computers.³ And in 1996, Arial 2.82 was selected by Microsoft to be one of the “core fonts for the web,” subsequently becoming one of few font choices for early web designers. It was this web version of Arial that Dinamo decided to use as the starting place for Areal.

To find early versions of Arial, the Dinamo team had to work with computer technology archivists to get access to some of the first personal computers and operating systems. In the end they found a tool that allowed them to boot up Windows 2000 on their own laptops and were able to take screenshots of Arial in its initial internet version. From the screenshots, they digitally traced each of the characters to use as a basis for Areal — a re-digitalization of a digital-first typeface.

As Dinamo found in their research, even across the various versions and updates, Arial hasn’t really changed much in the last 43 years. The version we use today is essentially the same as the original, which, as most type designers will tell you, was hastily drawn and left a bit unresolved. But it’s also one of the most popular typefaces in the world. It’s a system font, ubiquitous, often used by default — all of which were reasons that Are.na originally chose to use it. And besides, despite its inconsistencies, we (Are.na and Dinamo) love Arial.

With Areal, Dinamo designed an updated version of Arial especially suited for Are.na, but which still honors the original. Stem thicknesses were streamlined, more characters added (), a monospace version drawn, dark mode functionality optimized. You probably wouldn’t have noticed these changes if you hadn’t read this statement. It’s possible you still won’t. But to us (Are.na and Dinamo) Areal’s existence is satisfying in the way that rewriting an entire front-end is satisfying. As stated in this text block from 5 years ago, “the reason you would create something is because you love it enough to see it exist.”

1. After Kristin Lucas’s performance piece “Refresh,” in which Lucas legally changes her name to the same name, claiming in a statement to the judge that she wanted to be “be born again as myself, or at the very least, the most current version of myself.”
2. As Mindy Seu and Laura Coombs point out in their note about using Arial in Cyberfeminism Index, Arial is one of the few systems fonts with a woman designer.
3. Similarly to the competing laser printer situation, Apple had a deal with Linotype and installed Helvetica as default. As David Reinfurt put it in his essay “Adam, Why Arial?” — “Windows was an unqualified success—millions of personal computers were loaded with Arial and millions of users made no distinction between Helvetica and its body double, Arial.”

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