Arial Normal Opentype Truetype Version 7.00- -western- | Font

Apple does not bundle Arial by default (only with Office for Mac). Version numbers on macOS differ entirely (macOS uses a different TrueType converter). To get version 7.00 on a Mac, you must run Windows in virtualization or convert the font manually (ensure you have a license).

Report Date: October 26, 2023 Subject: Arial Font File Analysis

Linux does not include Arial. You can install ttf-ms-win10 from unofficial repositories, or use fontconfig aliases to map Arial to a substitute like Liberation Sans. However, the exact "Version 7.00 -western-" is proprietary and cannot be legally obtained on Linux without a Windows license. Font Arial Normal Opentype Truetype Version 7.00- -western-

You may never actively choose Arial Normal. You might prefer Helvetica, or Inter, or Roboto. But every time your computer fails to find your preferred font, it falls back to Arial Normal OpenType TrueType Version 7.00 - -western- .

It is the digital equivalent of plain white bread. It is not exciting. It has no swashes, no ligatures, no soulful contrast. But it is always there. It loads in 0.0001 seconds. It never crashes your PDF. Apple does not bundle Arial by default (only

So the next time you scroll past "Arial Normal" in a dropdown menu, pause for a second. You are looking at the most successful, boring, and essential piece of typographic engineering in the last 20 years.

Do you still use Arial in your designs, or have you banished it to the shadow realm? Let us know in the comments. Found a typo or a missing character set


Found a typo or a missing character set? That’s not a bug—that’s just Version 7.00 doing its Western thing.

Since you specified "Western", this guide focuses specifically on the standard OpenType/TrueType variation of Arial that supports Western European languages (Latin-1 character set), which is the most common version found on Windows systems.


  • Conflict: If you already have Arial installed (MacOS includes it system-wide), Font Book may warn you of a duplicate. It is generally recommended to use the system version on Mac unless you specifically need the Windows v7.00 metrics for document compatibility.