A clean, modern sans-serif font used in banking, railway, and state government English typing exams. Arial is pre-installed on all Windows PCs and produces clear, screen-friendly text for typing test evaluation software.
Font Details
Key specifications used in government typing exam software.
Installation
Arial is already installed on most Windows PCs. Follow these steps to verify or manually install it.
Open MS Word, click the font box, and type "Arial". If it auto-suggests and text switches to a clean, rounded sans-serif style, the font is installed — skip to step 4.
Browse to C:\Windows\Fonts\ and search for "Arial". You'll find arial.ttf, arialbd.ttf (bold), ariali.ttf (italic), and arialbi.ttf (bold italic).
Click the Download button above to save arial.ttf. Double-click the file and click Install. Restart any open Office applications to refresh the font list.
Set font to Arial, size 12 pt, line spacing Single (1.0). For banking exam simulation, also set margins to 1 inch (2.54 cm) on all sides.
On macOS, Arial is usually pre-installed via Microsoft Office. On Linux, install the ttf-mscorefonts-installer package or use Liberation Sans — a free, metric-compatible alternative included with LibreOffice.
Exam Usage
Arial is the preferred font for banking, railway, and modern state government typing tests.
Some IBPS Probationary Officer and Management Trainee exam typing components specify Arial for the English typing test passage.
Railway Recruitment Board NTPC typing skill test often uses Arial as the typing font for both English and the basic computer proficiency test.
Life Insurance Corporation Assistant Administrative Officer recruitment typing tests specify Arial 12 pt for the English typing evaluation.
National Health Mission and various state health department clerical posts use Arial for their English typing components.
Several state Public Service Commissions — particularly in South India and Maharashtra — specify Arial for English typing tests.
Some DRDO and defence civilian typing tests use Arial as the font for English typing assessment rounds.
Practice & More Fonts
Build your typing speed in Arial and explore other exam fonts.
Arial is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders for Monotype in 1982. It was designed as a metrically compatible alternative to Helvetica and has been bundled with Microsoft Windows since version 3.1. Arial's clean, open letterforms make it particularly well-suited for on-screen reading and typing test environments.
If your exam notification specifies Arial, practise in Arial. The key difference you'll notice is that Arial is a proportional sans-serif font — characters are slightly wider and have no serifs, which some typists find easier to read quickly. Times New Roman's serif strokes can feel slightly compressed at 12 pt on lower-resolution monitors.
Is Arial free? Arial is a Microsoft font bundled with Windows. It is free to use on any Windows computer. A metric-compatible free alternative called Liberation Sans is available under the SIL Open Font License.
What is Liberation Sans? Liberation Sans is a free font from Red Hat that is metric-compatible with Arial — documents formatted in one look identical in the other. It comes with LibreOffice and is available for all platforms.