An arbitrary gap thin film magnetic recording head is fabricated by forming a substrate based on traditional vertical planar thin film head wafer technology which is designed to produce an integrated subgap and subpole substrate structure. The recording head includes a pair of magnetically permeable thin film subpoles, separated by a low permeability subgap structure. An electrically conductive coil may be embedded, in part, within the subgap structure. Thus, the subpoles and subgap structure form part of a magnetic circuit. A highly permeable magnetic surface film spans from one subpole to the other having one or more arbitrary gap patterns. That is, a surface thin film is deposited and patterned on the tape bearing surface of the head to optimize various element configurations, gap patterns and head-to-tape medium contact.