Helvetica

Helvetica is a classic. Helvetica is played out. Both of these statements are true to an extent. There are many reasons why Helvetica is so widespread. The most obvious being that that font has been bundled with the Mac OS for years. It is arguably the most respectable of the “default” fonts. But it’s also used because it’s a safe, neutral choice. Even its ubiquity contributes to its neutrality — letters so common they become invisible.

But invisibility isn’t always appropriate, particularly where individuality is key. Here are typefaces from the Grotesque genre that offer something different from Helvetica — whether it’s style, warmth, or extra features like small caps, figure alternates, and additional widths.

Find fonts similar to Helvetica in this Fontlist. To download a font, clicking its name will take you to the family page where you can choose and purchase single weights or volumes. For free fonts see our Free Fonts Fontlist.

The Helvetica (Latin for Swiss) has the objective and functional style which was associated with Swiss typography in the 1950s and 1960s. The font is perfect for international correspondence: no ornament, no emotion, just clear presentation of information. Helvetica font is still one of most popular sans-serif fonts.
Helvetica, the typeface par excellence, can look back on a colourful life. Originally designed for hand composition, it has been adapted over the years for all methods of composition: from hot metal line composition, and opto-mechanical phototypesetting of the first generation, to digital typesetters.
As times change, the technical requirements change that must be met by a typeface. There is also a change in what we may consider to be the beauty and suitability of a typeface.
To meet these requirements and conform to the tastes of a new generation of type users, Linotype presented the "Neue Helvetica".
The new possibilities offered by CRT and Laser technologies have caused us to have the complete Helvetica font family carefullly redrawn at the Linotype Design Studio. This has resulted in a pleasant synthesis of aesthetical and technical aspects and has led to Neue Helvetica, a contemporary typeface geared to the future for use in modern electronic publishing.
Whats different in Neue Helvetica font?
We refined the 54-unit system and the spacing.
Its subtly shaded range offers you a much larger choice of weights and versions.
Uniform, delicately refined stylistic features have been maintained in all three versions, the condensed, the regular and the extended.
The cap height is the same throughout the entire family
The x-height is the same in all weights, because it increases as the stroke thickness increases.
There is more emphasis on the punctuation marks, for even better results in reproduction. New numbering system for your easy reference. Each weight and version has its own number.
See neue Helvetica e-CD.

This typeface, designed by Max Miedinger and other project members at the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei, has become one of the most famous and popular typefaces in the world, thanks to the marketing strategy of Stempel and Linotype. It forms an integral part of many printers and operating systems. The original letterforms of Helvetica had to be modified for the Linotype system. Over the years, Helvetica was expanded to include many different weights, but these were not coordinated with each other.In 1983, D. Stempel AG redesigned and digitized the "Neue Helvetica" typeface for Linotype and made it a self-contained font family. Today, this family consists of 51 different font weights.The original numbering system for the weight designations came from the numbering of the Univers font. The basic font weight, "Helvetica roman", is at the heart of this numbering system. The designation "55 roman" forms the central point. The first figure of the number describes the stroke thickness - 25 ultra light to 95 extra black. The second figure gives information on the width and orientation of the font - Helvetica 53 extended to Helvetica 57 condensed.