Arial vs Helvetica

No font is held in such high regard for a generation of designers as Helvetica. Similarly, apart from comic sans, few fonts are as disliked as Arial.
I’ve always wondered if it was simply a mac vs windows thing, or that it was just a safe name to drop when in a conversation with a designer?

Some smart person has done the obvious, yet crafty thing and put the two fonts side-by-side and overlapped to reveal their differences. In most instances Helvetica is clearly the simpler, more elegant font (see the angles on the r, t and c for example).

I wonder if this comparison chart only lists 10 characters because all others are identical? I might have to do some investigating myself…

found on the deerbrains blog

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posted: January 25th, 2010 | by: tomagotchi | perma: link | tags: , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

8 Comments on “Arial vs Helvetica”

  1. #1 Weekend miscellany — The Endeavour said at 4:01 pm on February 13th, 2010:

    [...] Ideation and design thinking podcast Arial versus Helvetica [...]

  2. #2 Grizzly Bear Modern » Arial vs. Helvetica said at 7:49 am on February 6th, 2010:

    [...] PS that Helvetica documentary is AWESOME! Found on You Might Like This [...]

  3. #3 Arial vs Helvetica « said at 5:37 am on February 6th, 2010:

    [...] February 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment via [...]

  4. #4 davidbdale said at 8:13 am on February 4th, 2010:

    Every typeface reveals its goofiness when examined too closely. That club foot on Helvetica’s lower case a is ridiculous on its own. Compare paragraphs of the two faces though, and Helvetica is much more satisfying.

  5. #5 Arial x Helvetica « El jueves y el diseño said at 12:50 pm on February 2nd, 2010:

    [...] via siga [...]

  6. #6 Arial vs. Helvetica « pollygon said at 5:04 am on February 2nd, 2010:

    [...] February 1, 2010 · Leave a Comment Found on You Might Like This. [...]

  7. #7 Meg anabel said at 1:20 am on January 30th, 2010:

    It’s plaguerism wrapped up in a font. Every time I feel myself softening towards the A end of my type library I read this article

    The Scourge of Arial.
    http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html

  8. #8 Daniel said at 10:32 am on January 26th, 2010:

    Tom (angel eyes),

    Did you post this just for me?

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