Install FontSwap
Arimo
About Arimo
- Source
- Google Fonts ↗
- Classification
- sans-serif
- Weights
- Variable (100-900)
- Features
- Variable, Italics
Free to use, modify, and distribute. Can be used commercially without attribution.
What's allowed?
- ✓ Client work
- ✓ SaaS / Web apps
- ✓ YouTube / Video
- ✓ Sell products
- ✓ Print materials
Note: Derivative fonts must use the same license.
Full license guide →Arimo is a neo-grotesque sans-serif by Steve Matteson, published under the SIL Open Font License and distributed through Google Fonts since 2010. Its purpose is unusually specific: the project describes it as "metrically compatible with Arial," meaning every character occupies the same advance width as its Arial counterpart. Swap one for the other and line breaks, page counts and column widths do not move.
Why metric compatibility matters
Most font substitution is approximate. You pick something that looks close, accept that text will reflow, and adjust the layout. Metric compatibility removes that step entirely. A document laid out in Arial renders in Arimo with identical line endings — which is why Arimo ships as a core font on Chrome OS and appears in most Linux distributions as the default Arial stand-in.
This makes it the correct answer to a narrow but common problem: you have a document, template or web page built around Arial, you cannot license Arial, and you need the result to be indistinguishable in layout rather than merely similar in feel.
What it actually looks like
Arimo is not a pixel-for-pixel Arial clone, and it does not pretend to be. Matteson redrew the letterforms with on-screen rendering in mind — apertures are marginally more open, and the curves resolve more cleanly at small sizes on low-resolution displays. Set a paragraph of each side by side at 16px and the differences are visible if you look for them: Arimo's terminals are cut a little more squarely, and its R leg is straighter.
At normal reading distance, in running text, almost nobody notices.
Technical features
- Variable weight axis:
wght400–700, so any weight in that range is available - Four named weights: Regular 400, Medium 500, SemiBold 600, Bold 700
- True italics across the full weight range
- Broad script coverage: Latin, Latin Extended, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Vietnamese
- Metric compatibility with Arial across the Latin character set
Best use cases
- Document conversion: Word, Docs and PDF templates that were built in Arial
- Cross-platform web work: a font stack that degrades predictably
- Government and education: where OFL licensing is a procurement requirement
- Linux and Chrome OS targets: where it may already be the installed default
Where it is the wrong choice
Arimo is deliberately neutral. If you want a typeface with a point of view — something that makes a brand feel considered — this is not it, and choosing it for a brand system will produce work that reads as generic. Its weight range also stops at 700, so there is no Light for large display settings and no Black for impact headlines. Reach for Inter or Public Sans when you need range, and keep Arimo for the compatibility job it does better than anything else.
Usage tips
Because the weight axis bottoms out at 400, build hierarchy from size and spacing rather than from a Light weight. The Medium 500 is genuinely useful for UI labels where Regular is too quiet and Bold too loud — a gap Arial itself never filled. Pair it with a serif that has some warmth, such as Lora or Newsreader, if the neutrality starts to feel cold.
Is Arimo on Google Fonts?
Yes, Arimo is available for free on Google Fonts. Get Arimo on Google Fonts ↗
Alternative For (2)
Arimo is a free alternative to the following premium fonts:
Metrically compatible with Arial — identical advance widths, so layouts do not reflow.
Also drawn by Steve Matteson; shares his neo-grotesque construction logic.
Compare Arimo
See how Arimo compares to other fonts side by side.
Variable Font Axes
Arimo is a variable font with 1 axis you can fine-tune.
| Axis | Min | Default | Max |
|---|---|---|---|
| wght | 400 | 400 | 700 |
How to Use Arimo
Copy these code snippets to quickly add Arimo to your project.
CSS code for Arimo
@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Arimo:wght@100..900&display=swap');HTML code for Arimo
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Arimo:wght@100..900&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">Tailwind code for Arimo
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
fontFamily: {
'arimo': ['Arimo', 'sans-serif'],
},
},
},
}
// Usage in HTML:
// <p class="font-arimo">Your text here</p>Next.js code for Arimo
// Using next/font (Next.js 13+)
import { Arimo } from 'next/font/google';
const arimo = Arimo({
subsets: ['latin'],
weight: ['100', '200', '300', '400', '500', '600', '700', '800', '900'],
});
export default function Component() {
return (
<p className={arimo.className}>
Your text here
</p>
);
}
// Or using inline styles with Google Fonts link:
// <p style={{ fontFamily: "'Arimo'" }}>Your text</p>Expo and React Native code for Arimo
// Install: npx expo install @expo-google-fonts/arimo expo-font
import { useFonts, Arimo_400Regular } from '@expo-google-fonts/arimo';
export default function App() {
const [fontsLoaded] = useFonts({
Arimo_400Regular,
});
if (!fontsLoaded) return null;
return (
<Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Arimo_400Regular' }}>
Your text here
</Text>
);
}