Arialnormal Opentype Truetype Version 701 Western Top →

In the 1990s–2000s, Monotype used “Top” as a marketing term for highly hinted screen-optimized fonts. “Top” fonts had:

In the world of digital typography, font metadata often reads like a cryptic code. You’ve likely encountered a string of text in your font management software, a CSS @font-face declaration, or a file properties dialog that looks something like this: "Arialnormal Opentype Truetype Version 701 Western Top."

At first glance, it appears to be a jumble of redundant descriptors. However, for designers, developers, and publishing professionals, this string is a precise fingerprint. It tells a complete story about one of the most ubiquitous typefaces in the world: Arial. arialnormal opentype truetype version 701 western top

This article breaks down every component of the keyword—Arialnormal, OpenType, TrueType, Version 701, Western, and Top—to help you understand what this font version is, why it exists, and how it affects your digital documents.

font-family: "Arial Normal", Arial, sans-serif;
font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;

If you want, I can produce a compact comparison table between version 701 and an earlier version (e.g., 701 vs. 6xx) showing specific table/metric differences. In the 1990s–2000s, Monotype used “Top” as a

This string is not a single font file name, but rather a composite of metadata fields extracted from a specific version of the Arial font. It tells a precise story about the font’s format, internal versioning, and character set targeting.

  • On Linux:
  • Cross-platform:

    • To appreciate the keyword, you must understand the early 2000s font wars. In 1996, Microsoft and Adobe jointly announced OpenType, a superset of TrueType and Type 1. Throughout the late 90s, Windows systems shipped with hybrid fonts—TrueType collections (.ttf) that included OpenType layout tables. If you want, I can produce a compact

    Version 7.01 of Arial (often appearing in font properties as Version 7.01 or Build 701) was the version bundled with:

    This version bridged two eras. It was the last major TrueType-native Arial before Microsoft fully migrated to the "Microsoft OpenType" designation around Windows Vista/Office 2007. The 701 build number corresponds roughly to a compilation date in late 2001–early 2002, explaining why its character set and hinting align with early XP-era rendering (ClearType nascent, not default).

    When using CSS @font-face, you can specify precise local font names. Knowing the full string allows you to target that exact version:

    @font-face 
  font-family: 'Arial Exact';
  src: local('Arialnormal Opentype Truetype Version 701 Western Top'),
       local('Arial'),
       url('arial-701-webfont.woff2') format('woff2');

    This ensures that if the user has only that legacy version, it gets used, preserving your carefully designed letter spacing.