Criticism
Arial is held in disregard by many professional typographers and type enthusiasts, for reasons relating to its similarity to other typefaces and the involvement of Microsoft in its development and distribution. It is reinforced by Arial's apparent status as a de facto Helvetica stand-in, but without paying royalties, or credit, to Helvetica. Arial's glyph widths are nearly identical to those of Helvetica, rather than Monotype Grotesque, on which Arial is otherwise based. "But to an experienced designer," writes typographer Mark Simonson, using Arial "was like asking for Jimmy Stewart and getting Rich Little." At the same time, there are a number of fonts which are direct copies of Helvetica that several type manufacturers have created, including Triumvirate, Helios, Megaron, and Newton.
In 2005, Robin Nicholas was asked, before bringing up the subject of Arial, how far he would compromise his artistic principles for money. Nicholas responded that he would never just recreate an existing font, and the only areas where he would take a stand are "those where there would be legal problems; somebody wanting us to make a typeface that's clearly a corruption of somebody else's typeface."
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