Steve Matteson designed Arimo as a refreshing sans serif that is metrically compatible with Arial. In practice that means a document set in Arimo breaks lines and pages the same way as one set in Arial, which matters when files move between Windows, macOS, Linux and the web.
The design was tuned for on-screen readability and supports the pan-European WGL character set, covering Latin, Latin Extended, Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew. It was updated in April 2026 and released again under the OFL. The weight axis in the variable version runs from 400 to 700.
Google Fonts added Arimo in November 2010. The ZIP contains 8 static TTF files, which are Regular, Medium, SemiBold and Bold in upright and italic, plus the two variable fonts.
Best uses for Arimo
- Documents that must keep Arial line breaks
- A web fallback for Arial
- Forms and spreadsheets
- Print layouts shared between systems
- Presentations opened on other computers
Font pairings
For a Times style companion from the same designer, Tinos is the matching serif, and Cousine covers monospace needs. If you want a different voice for headings, Playfair Display gives a strong contrast.
Licence & credit
Arimo is designed by Steve Matteson and released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. That makes it free for personal and commercial use: logos, packaging, websites, apps, videos and print. You can bundle it in your own projects and modify it. You cannot sell the font files by themselves, and the licence text stays with them. Our guide to the SIL Open Font License explains what that means in practice. The family is also on Google Fonts and its source is on the project page.
Arimo Font Family
License: Personal & Commercial Use
Font Type: Free
Format: TTF
File Size: 2.1 MB
Total Files: 10
