OPF Font Scheme

Arial

Arial is a sans serif OPF font scheme for Latin presentations, using Arial Black for headings with Arial for body text.

Heading Font

Arial Black

Body Font

Arial: Simple and clear

Open replacement and PowerPoint fonts

For each role: the font this scheme names, the open replacement OPF's font policy identifies for it, and the font a PowerPoint export writes. Previews use the selected font if it is installed, otherwise the open replacement. See the OPF font policy.

Heading

Selected font:: Arial Black; licensed
Previews use:: Arial Black if installed, otherwise Montserrat; look-alike only
PowerPoint export uses:: Arial Black

Arial Black is proprietary (Monotype, licensed to Microsoft) and is never bundled. Montserrat at weight 900 is open (OFL-1.1). Google Fonts · Source
Measured against Arial Black 5.23: text width differs by 0.8% on average and 2.8% at most.
Other open fonts in OPF's policy for it: Arimo.

Body

Selected font:: Arial; licensed
Previews use:: Arial if installed, otherwise Arimo; metric-compatible
PowerPoint export uses:: Arial

Arial is proprietary (Monotype, licensed to Microsoft) and is never bundled. Arimo is open (OFL-1.1). Google Fonts · Source
Measured against Arial 7.06: text width differs by 0.0% on average and 0.0% at most.
Other open fonts in OPF's policy for it: Liberation Sans.

look-alike only: The open replacement looks similar but its advances differ from the selected font, so line breaks and sizes can shift (a documented gap).

metric-compatible: The open replacement has the same character advances as the selected font, so text is the same size on screen.

Data from OPF core 21dcdc6 (font-policy.json). JSON

OPF Config

font-schemes:arial

Open Presentation Format

{
  "$schema": "https://openpresentation.org/schema/opf/v1",
  "name": "PPTX.gallery — font-schemes/arial",
  "tags": [
    "gallery:font-schemes/arial"
  ],
  "design": {
    "fontScheme": "arial"
  },
  "slides": [
    {
      "id": "gallery-preview-1",
      "layout": "title-slide",
      "title": "Font scheme preview",
      "subtitle": "Applies the \"arial\" heading/body/accent/code pairing.",
      "design": {
        "contentBox": false,
        "contentAlignment": "center",
        "titleAlignment": "center"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Open in visual editor Open in Inspector

Load this config in the gallery's visual editor, or in the Inspector at pptx.dev.

View registry.json

Use For

Business presentations, product decks, sales narratives, internal strategy, and general-purpose slides.

Avoid For

Brand systems that require a specific proprietary typeface or highly expressive editorial tone.

OPF ID: arial
Type: Sans Serif
Language Coverage: Latin
Readability: 9/10
License: System font; availability and use follow the installed operating system or Microsoft Office font license.

This preview uses the named font if it is installed on your device, otherwise the open replacement from the OPF font policy, bundled with this site (metric-compatible where one exists, otherwise a visual look-alike with different text widths). License-restricted (proprietary) fonts are never bundled or embedded; the bundled faces are listed in their license notice. OPF exports name the font you selected, so PowerPoint shows the real font when it is installed or available as an Office cloud font.

Type Size Reference

Element	Size	Purpose
Main Title	44-60pt	Opening slides, major section headers
Section Header	32-40pt	Topic introductions, key messages
Subheading	24-28pt	Supporting points, category labels
Body Text	20-24pt	Detailed content, explanations
Captions	14-16pt	Image credits, footnotes, sources

Font Scheme Rules

Maximum 3 Type Sizes

Use no more than three distinct sizes per slide: headline, subhead, and body. This maintains clear hierarchy without visual chaos.

Minimum 24pt Body Text

Body text should be at least 24 points for comfortable readability, even from the back of a large room.

Two Fonts Maximum

Stick to one font for headings and one for body text. More typefaces create inconsistency and slow reading.

Consistent Line Height

Use 1.4-1.6x line height for body text. Tight leading makes text hard to scan; loose leading wastes space.

Left-Align Body Text

Left-aligned text is fastest to read. Reserve center-alignment for short headlines and quotes only.

Limit Line Length

Keep lines to 50-75 characters for optimal readability. Full-width text blocks are exhausting to read.