Is Arial Free for Commercial Use?

Is Arial Free for Commercial Use? System Font Rules

If Arial came with Windows, you can use it commercially for nearly everything you print or export: logos, books, ads, T-shirts, social images, video captions, and Word, PowerPoint or PDF files with the font embedded. You cannot move the font file itself. Self-hosting it as a web font, shipping it inside an app or game, and converting it all need a licence from Monotype, which owns Arial.

On a Mac the written grant is shorter. Apple's macOS licence lets you use the bundled fonts "to display and print content while running the Apple Software", lets you embed them only as each font's own embedding setting allows, and forbids copying, redistributing or modifying the software, fonts included. It does not mention logos or selling what you print, in either direction. Microsoft publishes a long FAQ that answers those cases; Apple publishes no equivalent that we could find, so the macOS column in the table below says "not addressed" where Apple is silent.

Who owns the Arial on your computer

Arial is a Monotype typeface. Microsoft's own Arial page says it "was originally designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas of Monotype" and was later developed with Patricia Saunders into a family "which Microsoft licensed as one of the core set of fonts for Windows 3.1 in 1992." The same page lists the copyright as "© 2017 The Monotype Corporation" and says the font is "Exclusively included with Microsoft products and services where applicable" (Microsoft Learn, Arial font family, last updated July 8, 2026, read October 30, 2026).

So neither Microsoft nor Apple owns Arial. Each licenses it from Monotype and passes some rights on to you through the operating system's licence. That is why the answer depends on which computer the font came from, and why the font file carries its own short licence note. We opened the copy of Arial that ships with macOS 26.6.2 on our test Mac and read its name table. The licence field says, in full:

You may use this font to display and print content as permitted by the license terms for the product in which this font is included. You may only (i) embed this font in content as permitted by the embedding restrictions included in this font; and (ii) temporarily download this font to a printer or other output device to help print content.

The phrase that matters is "the product in which this font is included". The font defers to the operating system's licence, Windows or macOS, and adds two things of its own: embedding follows the font's flag, and you may send it to a printer temporarily.

Two versions are in circulation. Microsoft's Windows 11 font list gives Arial as version 7.00. The macOS copy we opened reports "Version 5.01.2x", copyright 2006. The measurements later in this guide come from the macOS file, and the Windows 11 build may differ in its character set.

The embedding flag in every Arial file we opened

Every TrueType font has a field, called fsType in the OpenType specification, that tells software whether the font may be embedded in a document. Microsoft's FAQ explains the four common settings: "installable", "editable", "print and preview", and "restricted license" (no embedding). We read the field in the Arial files on our test Mac with the fontTools library on October 30, 2026.

Editable is the setting Microsoft describes as "the most common setting for Microsoft supplied fonts." It means an authoring app may save the font inside a document, and someone without Arial installed may open and edit that document. That flag is what makes the PDF and Office rows of the next table possible on both systems.

Use by use: what Microsoft and Apple each say

The Windows column quotes or paraphrases Microsoft's Font redistribution FAQ for Windows (last updated November 19, 2024, read October 30, 2026). The macOS column applies section 2 of Apple's macOS software licence agreement: 2E (Fonts), 2J (Other Use Restrictions) and 2N (No Reverse Engineering), read in the current PDF at apple.com/legal/sla, document EA2005 dated July 11, 2026. The macOS Tahoe 26 licence (EA1955, July 11, 2025) has the same Fonts clause word for word.

The Apple column is narrower in wording, not necessarily in practice. Apple's clause covers display and print. Exporting a JPEG or setting a logo is, mechanically, displaying content and saving the result, and the font file never leaves your Mac. We do not state that Apple permits them, because the licence does not say so; we state that the licence does not forbid them in any clause we read, and that the font file itself says it may be used "as permitted by the license terms for the product." If a Mac-made logo will become a registered brand, the safer routes are to buy a Monotype licence or to set it in one of the open fonts covered further down.

"Not addressed" is not the same as "forbidden". It means the reader has to decide on the general wording. Microsoft removes that doubt for Windows users by naming logos, merchandise, graphics, memes and video captions one by one.

Hidden fonts are outside all of it. Microsoft's FAQ says its guidance covers fonts installed "as system-wide resources" and that hidden fonts, the ones that do not appear in font menus, "are not covered by this guide and should not be extracted and used."

The home-and-student catch

Almost every permission in Microsoft's FAQ carries the same condition: "Unless you are using an application that is specifically licensed for home, student, or non-commercial use." The FAQ repeats it for print output, for selling printed items, for logos, for images used in apps, and for distributing documents with embedded fonts.

That moves the question from the operating system to the program. Arial on Windows may be licensed for commercial output, but if the design app or office suite you print from is a home, student or non-commercial edition, the commercial permission does not reach work made in that app. Check the licence of the program itself, not only the font. The FAQ also says, about documents, that "the applications you use to create the documents may limit commercial use."

The same logic applies on a Mac in a looser form. The macOS licence has its own personal and commercial grants for installing the system, and individual apps carry their own terms. A free personal-use design app does not become commercial because the font inside it is.

The rule for when you need a Monotype licence

Every "not allowed" row in the table has one thing in common. Each one sends the font file, or a converted copy of it, somewhere other than the computer it was licensed on. Every allowed row sends out only the result: ink on paper, pixels in an image, or a document that carries the font locked inside it under the font's own embedding flag.

So the rule has two tests.

1. Does the font file, or anything converted from it, leave the licensed machine? Uploading it to a web server, bundling it in an app installer, flashing it onto a device, installing it on a rendering server and converting it to WOFF or to a bitmap font all count. If yes, the operating system licence does not cover you.
2. If the file stays put, does the output depend on the font being present to work? A PNG does not; it is a picture of text. A PDF with the font embedded under the Editable flag is the special case both licences allow. A CSS font stack that names Arial does not copy anything; it asks each visitor's own computer to use its own copy.

Fail the first test and you have two choices: buy extended rights, or use an open font that allows what you need.

Where the extended rights come from. Microsoft's FAQ says: "Many of the fonts owned by Microsoft can be licensed with extended rights from Monotype," and for app and game use it adds that "Many Microsoft supplied fonts are available for app and game licensing through the original font foundry or Monotype." Arial's own page links to "License Microsoft fonts for enterprises, web developers, for hardware & software redistribution or server installations." On October 30, 2026 that link went to a Monotype enquiry form on MyFonts headed "To begin the process of licensing a Microsoft font, complete the form." We did not get a published Arial price or licence menu from that route, so this guide quotes neither. For an idea of how Monotype prices a comparable family by use type, our free Helvetica alternatives guide read the MyFonts listing for Helvetica and its Desktop, web and app licences; treat that as a pattern, not as Arial's price.

For web use specifically, Microsoft adds that "Many Windows fonts are available for web use through Monotype's Fonts.com web font service, some are also available via Type Network's WebType.com."

None of this is legal advice; it is our reading of licence text and font files as of October 30, 2026. If a product launch or a client contract rides on the answer, have someone qualified read the exact licence that shipped with your copy.

A mug shop, an invoicing server and an indie game

The three projects below are made-up examples; every licence line quoted in them is the real text.

A print-on-demand shop on a Windows laptop. A seller designs mug and T-shirt artwork in a commercially licensed editor, sets a slogan in Arial Bold, exports a PNG and uploads it to a print service. The font file never leaves the laptop. The output is a graphic file, which Microsoft treats like printing, and the FAQ says it does not restrict selling things you print and make. Rule result: no Monotype licence. Our guide to free fonts for T-shirts and merch covers the platform-side checks that apply on top.

An invoicing service that renders PDFs on a Linux server. The app's templates ask for Arial, so a developer copies Arial.ttf from a Windows machine into the server image. That copy is the first test failing: "You may not copy them to other computers or servers." The fact that the PDFs are documents does not help, because the font had to be installed on the server to make them. Rule result: buy server rights from Monotype, or switch the template to Liberation Sans or Arimo, which have the same widths, so invoice layouts do not reflow. Liberation Sans exists for exactly this kind of document compatibility; its README describes the family as aiming "to provide document layout compatibility as usage of Times New Roman, Arial, Courier New."

An indie game with menus in Arial. The developer has two options. Pre-rendered PNG titles such as "New Game" and "Options" pass: Microsoft says images of "a word, phrase or passage of text" may go into a game. A runtime text system that needs the TTF bundled with the game, or a bitmap font sheet with one glyph per cell, fails both ways: "converting the font to a bitmap font (where each letter is treated individually) is not allowed." Rule result: pre-rendered words are fine; dynamic text needs a Monotype app licence or an open font.

Arimo and Liberation Sans, measured against Arial

Two open fonts were built to match Arial's widths: Arimo, designed by Steve Matteson and distributed by Google Fonts, and Liberation Sans, from Red Hat, whose licence file credits digitised data copyright 2010 Google Corporation. Google Fonts describes Arimo as "metrically compatible with Arial™". We checked that claim against the files rather than take it on trust.

On October 30, 2026 we downloaded Arimo from the google/fonts repository (the variable font, version 1.341, default Regular instance) and Liberation Sans 2.1.5 from the project's GitHub release, and compared them with Arial from macOS 26.6.2 using fontTools. We read the advance width (the horizontal space each character takes) for 114 characters: every printable ASCII character plus common accented letters, curly quotes, dashes, the euro, the pound and the copyright sign. We also set one sentence, "Invoice total: $1,284.50 due 30 November 2026.", and summed its widths.

The sentence width is the summed advance widths, 21,348.1 units per 1,000-unit em, multiplied by 12 points and divided by 1,000. The heights are the top of the drawn outline, read with fontTools' bounds pen.

Widths match exactly. All 114 characters line up to the unit, and so does the bold weight of Liberation Sans. A paragraph set in Arial and swapped to either font breaks its lines in the same places, a table column stays the same width, and a PDF form filled by a server lines up with a template drawn on a desktop. That is the whole point of "metric-compatible", and the files deliver it.

Heights do not. The capital H in both open fonts is 57 units shorter, about 3.9 percent, and the lowercase x is 20 units taller, about 1.9 percent. At 72 point, a poster headline, Arial's capitals stand about 51.5 points tall against 49.5 for Arimo, a 2-point difference; the x-height goes from about 37.3 to 38.0 points. In running text no one will notice. In a logo, a wordmark or a large headline where Arial's proportions were chosen on purpose, the swap is visible, and so are the letter shapes: Arimo and Liberation Sans draw several characters differently from Arial. Treat them as layout substitutes, not as the same design.

Coverage differs by script and symbol. We tested a handful of characters that people ask about. The Arabic letter alef is in the macOS Arial and in neither open font. Hebrew, Vietnamese, Cyrillic and Greek samples were in all three. The ruble, rupee and lari signs were only in Arimo, and the bitcoin sign only in Liberation Sans. The Windows 11 build of Arial (version 7.00) may cover more than the macOS file we opened; check the characters your own text needs.

If you need the fallback on a web page to land closer to Arial's vertical proportions, the size-adjust and ascent-override descriptors in CSS can tune it; our web fonts not loading troubleshooting guide walks through that technique for fallbacks in general.

Which open font fills which gap

Both fonts carry the SIL Open Font License 1.1, so the permissions are the same; the differences are in coverage, packaging and reserved names. The OFL preamble sums it up: the fonts may be "used, studied, modified and redistributed freely as long as they are not sold by themselves," and the requirement to stay under the OFL "does not apply to any document created using the fonts."

The reserved names differ, and they only matter if you modify or convert the font. Liberation's LICENSE file reserves two sets of names: "Reserved Font Arimo, Tinos and Cousine" for the Google-digitised data, and "Reserved Font Name Liberation" for Red Hat. A converted or edited Liberation Sans therefore cannot be called Liberation or Arimo. The OFL.txt that ships with Arimo in the google/fonts repository lists the Arimo Project Authors as copyright holder and names no reserved font name; renaming a modified version is still the cautious course, and condition 4 separately bars using the authors' names to promote your version.

Google's description of Arimo also says it was "Updated in April 2026 and re-released under the OFL", so an older Arimo file in a project folder may carry a different licence. Check the licence text that came with the copy you actually use, not the one on the web today. The same applies to Liberation: use a 2.x release, whose LICENSE file in the repository is the OFL 1.1.

For the mechanics of self-hosting an open font from Google Fonts, including the privacy side of serving it yourself, see our Google Fonts commercial use and self-hosting guide. For the file format to serve, the WOFF2 vs WOFF vs TTF guide has measured sizes. Conversion is fine here: the OFL allows it, which is the opposite of the Windows and macOS position on Arial.

A font stack that uses each licence for what it allows

Naming Arial first in CSS costs nothing and copies nothing; Microsoft says so in plain words. Serving Arimo from your own server as the next entry costs only the licence notice. A stack in that order, Arial, then Arimo, then Liberation Sans, then a generic sans-serif, gives visitors with Arial installed the real thing and everyone else a width-identical substitute. The page never ships Arial, so the licence question never arises. The trade-off is the height difference measured above: visitors without Arial see slightly shorter capitals and a taller x-height, though their line breaks match.

Other fonts that came with your computer

Arial is the question people search for, but the same split between output and file applies to the rest of the system fonts, with some exceptions worth knowing before you build a brand on them.

Other Windows fonts. Microsoft's FAQ covers every font installed with Windows as a system-wide resource, including "the symbol and emoji fonts supplied with Windows." The same table applies to Verdana, Georgia, Times New Roman, Segoe UI and the rest. The file metadata shows mixed ownership: the Verdana in macOS lists Microsoft as copyright holder and Carter & Cone as manufacturer, while Times New Roman lists Monotype. For extended rights the FAQ says to "Check the font properties to find the owner or developer of the font in question," which you can do under Start > Settings > Personalization > Fonts.

Segoe UI Variable has no extended licence. The FAQ is direct: "while Segoe UI can be licensed from Monotype, Segoe UI Variable is not available for licensing or use outside of Microsoft products or on non-Windows platforms." A design system that wants the Windows 11 look on other platforms cannot buy its way to that font.

Fonts from Office or other apps are a different licence. Microsoft's FAQ "covers only the fonts Microsoft supplies with Windows as system wide resources." Fonts that arrive with an app follow that app's licence agreement, and the FAQ warns that other licences, "even some free ones, may be more restrictive."

Helvetica on a Mac. macOS ships Helvetica, and the file's embedding flag reads Installable (0x0000), the least restrictive setting. The flag governs document embedding only; it does not turn Helvetica into an open font. The file's copyright line names Apple, Linotype and Type Solutions, and its trademark line says "Helvetica is a registered trademark of Linotype AG." The macOS licence still governs everything except embedding. Our Helvetica alternatives guide measures the open replacements.

San Francisco, Apple's interface font, has its own licence. The SF download on Apple's developer site comes with a separate agreement (EA1370, dated February 24, 2016) that lets you use it "solely for creating mock-ups of user interfaces to be used in software products running on Apple's iOS, OS X or tvOS operating systems," and only if you are a registered Apple Developer. That rules out SF for logos, packaging or a brand system, whatever your Mac lets you select in a font menu.

Checking a font's permissions on your own machine

You do not need to take this page's word for the flag on your copy. Both systems show it, and both licences point you there.

• On a Mac: Apple's licence says the embedding restrictions "can be found in the Font Book/Preview/Show Font Info panel." Open Font Book, select the font, and show its information; Apple names that panel as the place where the embedding restrictions appear.
• On Windows: the FAQ sends you to Start > Settings > Personalization > Fonts, where clicking a font shows its designer and manufacturer, and so tells you who sells extended rights.
• From a script: the fontTools library for Python reads the OS/2 table's fsType value and the name table's licence field, which is how we produced the tables above. In the low bits, a value of 8 is Editable, 4 is Print and Preview, 2 is Restricted, and 0 is Installable. If several bits are set, Microsoft's FAQ notes that "the least restrictive setting takes precedence."

Two things the flag does not tell you. It says nothing about web use, apps, servers or conversion; those are licence terms, not file settings. And a Print and Preview flag locks the whole document: if one such font is embedded alongside editable ones, the FAQ says the specification "requires that the whole document be locked for editing."

Logos set in Arial: what the licence settles, and what it does not

On Windows the font licence question for a logo is settled: Microsoft does not restrict making logos with Windows-supplied fonts, outside home or student apps. On a Mac it rests on the general display-and-print grant. Three other questions are not answered by any font licence.

Outlined artwork. Brand files usually convert type to vector outlines so the logo opens without the font. Microsoft's FAQ treats logos and graphic files as allowed output and bans converting the font into other formats, but it does not discuss outlined lettering in a vector logo by name. The closest answer is that a logo is an image of a word, not a font. If your client's legal team wants certainty for a trademark filing, a Monotype desktop licence or an open font removes the question.

Distinctiveness. Arial is everywhere, so a plain Arial wordmark may be harder to tell apart, and may be harder to protect as a mark on its own. That is a trademark matter, not a licence one; our guide to trademarking a logo with the USPTO explains what the office looks for, and the free fonts for logos guide lists open families with more character that still allow logo use.

The Arial name itself. The font file says "Arial is a trademark of The Monotype Corporation." Using the font is one thing; calling your product, theme or font "Arial" is another, and none of the permissions above cover it. The same caution applies to a modified open font: rename it.

For the wider picture of how font licences split rights across desktop, web, app and broadcast use, our guide to commercial font licensing sets out each licence type and the paperwork to keep. When the job involves fonts, photos and icons together, the design asset licensing checklist is the hub for every licence in a client handoff, and the place to record that Arial came from the operating system rather than from a purchase.

If the project is a website or an app, the cheapest decision you can make today is to put Arimo or Liberation Sans in the font files you ship and keep Arial only as a name in the stack. Then no Arial file ever leaves your computer, and the licence question that sends people to search engines never comes up.

Quick questions about Arial and system fonts

Can I use Arial in a logo for my business?

If the font came with Windows, yes: Microsoft's FAQ says it does not restrict making logos with Windows-supplied fonts, unless the app you design in is licensed for home, student or non-commercial use. Apple's macOS licence covers display and print and does not mention logos either way.

Can I use Arial on my website?

You can name Arial in your CSS so visitors' computers use their own copy. Microsoft says you do not even need a Windows licence for that. You cannot upload Arial to your server or convert it to WOFF2 without extended rights from Monotype; serve Arimo or Liberation Sans as the hosted fallback instead.

Is Arial free on a Mac?

It comes with macOS at no extra cost, under Apple's licence: display and print while running macOS, embedding as the font's flag allows, and no copying or redistribution. That licence is not an open licence, so "free to use" and "free to distribute" are different answers.

Can I sell T-shirts or prints that use Arial?

With Windows-supplied Arial, yes; the FAQ names T-shirts, crafts, books and advertisements. Uploading a PNG to a print-on-demand service sends a graphic file, not the font, so no font file is distributed.

Can I include Arial in my app or game?

Not the font file. Microsoft's document embedding rules apply to documents only, and converting Arial to a bitmap font is also off limits. Pre-rendered images of words and phrases are allowed. For live text, buy app rights from Monotype or bundle an OFL font with its licence file.

Is Liberation Sans the same as Arial?

It has the same character widths: all 114 characters we tested match Arial exactly, in regular and bold. Its capitals are about 3.9 percent shorter, its x-height about 1.9 percent taller, and several letters are drawn differently. It is a layout match, not a copy.

Is Arimo free for commercial use?

Yes. The Arimo files in Google's google/fonts repository carry the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows commercial use, embedding, self-hosting and bundling. The one thing it bars is selling the font on its own.

Do I need to credit Monotype when I use Arial?

Neither Microsoft's FAQ nor Apple's font clause asks for credit on printed or exported work. The OFL fonts ask for the licence and copyright notice to travel with the font files, not with documents or images made from them.

Licence texts, font files and measurements

• Microsoft Learn, Font redistribution FAQ for Windows, last updated November 19, 2024, read October 30, 2026. Source of every Windows row, the home-and-student condition, the Monotype extended-rights route and the Segoe UI Variable note.
• Microsoft Learn, Arial font family, last updated July 8, 2026, read October 30, 2026. Design history, copyright line, and the licensing link.
• Microsoft Learn, Windows 11 font list, page dated June 16, 2022, read October 30, 2026, for Arial version 7.00.
• Monotype via MyFonts, Microsoft typography licensing form, the destination of Microsoft's licensing link on October 30, 2026. No Arial prices were published there.
• Apple, macOS software licence agreement, document EA2005 dated July 11, 2026, read October 30, 2026: sections 1A, 2E, 2J and 2N. Compared with the macOS Tahoe 26 licence, EA1955 dated July 11, 2025, which has the same Fonts clause.
• Apple Developer, Fonts, read October 30, 2026, for the San Francisco font licence (EA1370, February 24, 2016).
• Google Fonts repository, Arimo OFL.txt, METADATA and description, read October 30, 2026; font file Arimo[wght].ttf version 1.341.
• Liberation Fonts, LICENSE and release 2.1.5 (published September 30, 2021), read October 30, 2026.
• SIL, Open Font License, the text quoted for conditions 1 to 5.
• Our measurements: Arial, Arial Bold, Arial Black, Arial Narrow and Arial Unicode from macOS 26.6.2, Arimo 1.341 and Liberation Sans 2.1.5, read with fontTools 4.68 on October 30, 2026. Embedding flags, name-table fields, advance widths for 114 characters, outline heights of H and x, glyph and code point counts, and the character spot checks.
• Left out because no source we could check gave them: Monotype's prices or licence types for Arial, the character set of the Windows 11 Arial build, and the terms of any individual design app.