Over the years, a wide range of variants have been released in different weights, widths, and sizes, as well as matching designs for a range of non-Latin alphabets. Its use became a hallmark of the International Typographic Style that emerged from the work of Swiss designers in the 1950s and '60s, becoming one of the most popular typefaces of the mid-20th century. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. Helvetica or Neue Haas Grotesk is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. How do you feel about this? Leave it in the comments! And if you want to dive more into both typeface’s history, I recommend this article by Ilene Strizver.1957 sans-serif typeface developed by Max Miedinger Helvetica The answer is Arial and Helvetica are not. And then you should ask yourself if it’s a good typeface to make you stand out. You should ask yourself if it’s a good or bad typeface for your desired application. So to ask if it’s a good or bad typeface would be wrong questions. Helvetica was deigned for high resolution offset printing in den late 1950s, and Arial was designed for low resolution print and screen display int the early 1980s. Akzidenz Grotesk was made for commercial prints like publicity, tickets and forms (anything except books) in the early 1900s.
#COMPARISON HELVETICA TO HELVETICA NOW FREE#
If you want to stay in the same style, my advice is to use a different typeface, like the more contemporary Aktiv Grotesk, or the much more legible Public Sans as a free alternative.Īnd there’s another thing. Since they are so ubiquitous, they feel like a default, feel undesigned, and the distinctness of your message gets lost with this. Helvetica and Arial are both widely used, which is their downside. Now knowing this, what does it help you with? Yes, you can impress your designer friends – which definitely has some value – but how does it help you to better convey your message, find a proper typeface for it? I’d argue it does not. When Helvetica seems elegant in larger sizes, this feature kind of disappears in text sizes, the differences to Arial kind of disappear at text sizes. These differences are more visible at larger sizes, in small sizes they kind of disappear. Helvetica has some more stylish features (like the tail at the a) and horizontal stroke endings (like at the c) and Arial has more open shapes (which makes it easier to read in small sizes). Akzidenz Grotesk, the influence for the design of Helvetica has a lower x-height and more open shapes than Helvetica.īut do you see the difference between Helvetica and Arial? Is one good and the other one bad? Both have the same metrics, which means the characters need the same space, but Helvetica has a more rectangular feel to it, Arial is comparably a bit softer. The mission was accomplished, since many people don’t badmouth Helvetica as the “AG rip-off”. Designed in 1957, its mission was to reach the success of Akzidenz Grotesk (or AG), which was the first sans-serif typeface to be widely used and dates back to 1896 (imagine that!). Arial has more open shapes (C, e) and a diagonal leg at the r and the a has no tail.īack then we did not go deeper, because Helvetica, the widely known and spread classic, that even has its own movie, was based on another typeface too. Helvetica has a more rectangular appearance and horizontal stroke endings. And when I studied graphic design in the mid 2000s, it had a bad reputation among my designer peers as being the “Helvetica copycat”. It also was the standard text typeface in MS Office until 2007.
#COMPARISON HELVETICA TO HELVETICA NOW WINDOWS#
Mostly because it’s the fallback sans-serif in Windows browsers. It’s a typeface everybody knows, and it feels very default. But is there really such a big difference between Arial and Helvetica? And does it really matter? I argue it does not and both are overused.Īrial, designed in 1982, has a rather bad reputation. Among many designers one is loved the other one is despised.