Arial is older (and weirder) than you think

It's the font that designers love to hate. Find out why.
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[@JaneXemylixa]

To me Arial looks like Helvetica that has been ordered "at ease"

[@jimmypockrus7725]

I would think Arial would be chosen so that it would appear near the top of any alphabetical list of fonts. Who's going to scroll all the way down to the S for Sonoran Sans.

[@middleagedhack]

You know what, you're right!

[@JohnDlugosz]

Of course, you didn't have enough fonts to need to scroll at all.

[@MrRicmeme]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@middleagedhack I find some sort of logical connection between the original name Sonoran (related to Sonos - sound?) and Arial (that which sounds like an Aria - a musical composition for a strong soloist usually with an airy quality ie in a high pitched register)

[@sunnowo]

Damn, I would've thought your channel was wayy bigger. A tad surprised this is less than 200 subs! Very good video, you'll grow this in no time

[@JohnDlugosz]

6:50 Microsoft did not design the TrueType standard! It's licensed from Apple.

[@Fleato]

my main gripe is capital 'i' like. it's jsut a stick and I constantly get it confused with lowercase' L' ................ l I, go ahead. tell me which is which at a glance.

[@LuiKang043]

I thought he was gonna talk about Arial the Little Mermaid being older and weirder, like she's some kind of ancient eldritch horror or something. I'm glad it wasn't that 😅😅

[@OneWingedNote]

why do I love learning about fonts and typesetting so much

[@Captain_Wet_Beard]

You make excellent stuff, I hope you find a larger viewer base in the near future!

[@Alansshows]

Fun fact: If you mute the video, it looks like a man attempting to fly by constantly flapping his hands.

[@jimgerth6854]

Very interesting story and nicely explained, just gained a subscriber :)

[@nicojan]

Same here!

[@Not_Info]

I'm here at 252 views. Something tells me this is gonna become a hit.

[@DJJonPattrsn22]

Thank you for the detailed & interesting history!

[@Istarax]

Great video! I think you could have showed the examples a bit longer and maybe even a bit more of them. But the story was great. Good luck on your channel!

[@klikkolee]

for me, the Gil sans "R" looked much more elegant and overall better than both the Helvetica and Arial "R". the Helvetica "R" felt very brick-ish, which is pretty inelegant to me. The Arial "R" looks stretched horizontally.

[@charleslafon3698]

I've always hated Arial (and loved Helvetica) but could never put a finger on why. Thank you for justifying my pre existing preferences

[@SolarGranulation]

Very interesting information but man do I disagree about which R is more graceful!

[@bucyrus5000]

Any Bahnschrift stans out there?

[@captainkeyboard1007]

I like Helvetica and Univers better than Arial. I believe that Arial is an imitation font and not authentic. In spite of that fact, I use Arial sparingly, but Helvetica and Neue Haas Grotesk fonts some more before I would "look at" the Arial font. Neue Haas Grotesk looks similar to Helvetica in most respects. It is found in Microsoft Windows. I find that the letters uppercase G and R and the number 1 in the Arial font are unattractive, and boring like blurred lines. I do notice on KZbin that the Arial font appears as numbers on freight railcars. Your stories are terrific!

[@middleagedhack]

Thank you so much for the compliment!

[@captainkeyboard1007]

@@middleagedhack You are welcome. The compliment is intended to be the truth to be told. Typeset work is another interest of mine like microcomputer technology. Happy Writing!👍

[@herzogsbuick]

i don't think i'm going to like, subscribe or comment. ah goddamnit! :-) enjoyed it, subscribed and liked. a critique is the intro length: i think you should pare it down. this is coming from someone who just ruined a perfectly good new part while installing it on my band's van, so, ya know -- caveat emptor. looking forward to more! greetings from alaska

[@middleagedhack]

Thanks! I’ve been thinking of cutting that intro down, your comment has convinced me! I have a few videos in the pipeline already so look for a shortened one in a few weeks!

[@eow4317]

I can’t be the only one who thought this would be about the little mermaid

[@fresh_pasta]

Ariel?

[@JamaicaWhiteMan]

Not quite the ugliest, although close to it. But I hate all those sans-Serif fonts. Give me a Times New Roman every time.

[@wonderfaller]

ARIAL ROCKS! Comic Sans stinks!