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

Related Posts with Thumbnails

You Might Like This You Might Like This You Might Like This You Might Like This You Might Like This You Might Like This
 

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?

Leave a Reply