7 ms·
Arial versus Helvetica
- mingyeow 17y agoLoved this article. Amazing how such a subtle difference can cause such a big difference in visual impact
- sachinag 17y agoUm, the fact that there is a HOWTO tell the difference tells me that there isn't really much of a difference in real-world visual impact. Sure, Helvetica kerns a lot better than Arial, but the vast majority of people don't see the difference.
- beza1e1 17y ago... but they may feel the difference without noticing.
- pmichaud 17y agoIt might not be obvious given a few characters, but the overall impact is huge. People who don't know the difference, and can't articulate it, will /still/ know something is wrong, even though they can't put their finger on it.
- jeff18 17y agoWhich one should we use so that people don't feel bad due to our choice of minutely different font?
- pmichaud 17y agoMeaning, which is the higher quality font between Arial and Helvetica? Helvetica is the winner. Geometry is much tighter, plus the kerning and hinting is far better, and you have the possibility of using the many faces in the family from ultra condensed, to wide, from light to black.
- DrJokepu 17y agoHow about not using any of them? The biggest strength of Helvetica is its biggest weakness as well; it works with everything. Almost anything in any context can be written with Helvetica. In most cases though, it's not a particularly intersting choice, I could say, it's a bit boring to see Helvetica everywhere. Of course there are places where Helvetica is a very good fit; the New York Subway is one example of that in my opinion.
- benhoyt 17y agoI would like to think this is true, but honestly find it difficult to believe. Do you have any evidence or research on the topic?
- mingyeow 17y agofrom my own testing, it seems that people will sometimes say "that does not feel right", and when i switch it over to the other, they go "ah, that is better". just my own experience, which is why i find this so interesting
- tptacek 17y agoThis is just how to tell them apart easily. The sum of the visual difference between text set in Arial and Helvetica is bigger than that.
- spolsky 17y agoThe easiest way to tell is that Helvetica is obsessive about straight horizontal edges, while Arial tends to use angled edges rather unsystematically.
- dcurtis 17y agoExcept, for some reason, the capital R in Helvetica, which is a very curvy letter.
- unalone 17y agoBut the R only curves so that its leg meets the base at a logical angle. Arial's straight leg looks straighter, but if you isolate it as a piece itself then that straight part cuts off at a diagonal angle to maintain the flat bottom.
- dcurtis 17y agoOh, wow, interesting; I hadn't thought about it that way. (The R does still have a little serif though, which always bothers me.)
- onreact-com 17y agoIt's easier, you pay for Helvetica while Arial is free. Also no graphic designer of at least basic skills uses Arial. Arial is only used on the Web.
- Adrock 17y agoThis inspired me to generate some automatic font comparisons using Mathematica: http://cronus.ws/~mta/fonts/ http://cronus.ws/~mta/fonts/ Any feedback is appreciated.
- DrJokepu 17y agoVery nice, it would be interesting if you could do a Microsoft Sans Serif - Helvetica comparison as well as those two fonts are almost identical, with only very very subtle differences.
- lamnk 17y agoWhy do you compare Consolas with others ? It's a monospaced typeface, it should be compared with Courier New/Monaco/Andale Mono etc ... Or Courier vs Courier New ? Compare the popular typefaces from different platforms (Win/Mac/Lin) would also be very interesting
- sp332 17y agoHow about Time New Roman vs. Georgia? It's always puzzled me that they look much different on screen, but fairly similar when printed.
- Adrock 17y agoThat's a good, subtle one: http://cronus.ws/~mta/fonts/GeorgiaTimesNewRoman.html http://cronus.ws/~mta/fonts/GeorgiaTimesNewRoman.html
- sp332 17y agoOK, so I guess the slight differences are exaggerated by the font hinting. But the printer, being much higher resolution, can show the similar font shapes more clearly. Cool.
- spicyj 17y agoI'd be curious to see how you did this. Would you be willing to release the source code?
- madair 17y agoDoes anyone know of reputable research and blind tests that back up the common designer sentiment against Arial? The reaction of many designers seems to smell of elitism and subjectivism more than anything to me, but I'll be happily proven wrong. Are designers commonly aware of why Arial exists. I presume many designers must understand the very strong business & licensing reasons for Microsoft to have developed this typeface. Do many designers also understand the distinctly different approach to pixel alignment in display faces, which some people prefer while others prefer Apple's approach (I subjectively prefer Microsoft's approach). It's easy to pile onto the I hate Microsoft and everything they touch bandwagon, but how much unbiased and objective research has been applied to the question of qualitative value to the target audience? Is an old typeface only good if it's designed by the Swiss? Something is stinky here. There are so many subjective factors at play while the language surrounding debate rarely recognizes those factors. [Update: As noted by DrJokepu below, Microsoft didn't develop the font originally. I think the underlying licensing and business considerations remain a similar discussion.]
- DrJokepu 17y agoEspecially since Arial wasn't commissioned by Microsoft, it was designed in 1982 by Patricia Saunders and Robin Nicholas, commissioned by IBM for their laser printers. It was originally called Sonoran San Serif. Microsoft later shipped it with Windows 3.1.
- madair 17y agoThanks for catching my error in the history.
- jacobmorse 17y agoIt isn't so much an issue of taste (or sentiment) as much as it is an issue of the design itself. Typography is about math/geometry as much as it is about taste. Helvetica was designed first, meticulously. Arial came later, resembling Helvetica, but breaking many typographic rules. I'm a designer and I'm not particularly (at least not inordinately) impassioned about things like this, but I do find it important to recognize the difference between _design_ and art. It's often less about subjective preferences and more about purposeful/thoughtful solutions—in this case, what constitutes acceptable typography.
- lamnk 17y agoOK now i know the difference and how to spot Arial, but can anyone show me why is Helvetica superior to Arial ?
- ZeroGravitas 17y agoI was under the impression that Arial was a cheap knock-off of Helvetica. They took a similar font and reshaped it so it could stand in for Helvetica. Clearly this is uninspired, much like a KDE theme trying to recreate Mac OS X. There's no actual law that says such a knock-off must be inferior to the original but a) it's off to a bad start, and b) even if it ties with the original it's got the taint of being a rip-off motivated by greed. The full history of Arial, from a link someone else posted: http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html Note that Red Hat has in turn commisioned a font that is "metric compatible" with Arial: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts
- blasdel 17y agoIf they wanted an exact knock-off they could do so perfectly legally -- the only defensible IP afforded to typefaces is the trademark on their names -- the set of shapes for use in typesetting cannot be copyrighted or otherwise protected.
- ZeroGravitas 17y agoThe link I provided above covers this and suggests that the foundry that created Arial didn't want to be a blatant pirate, so instead did just enough to pretend they weren't ripping off Helvetica. "What is really strange about Arial is that it appears that Monotype was uncomfortable about doing a direct copy of Helvetica. They could very easily have done that and gotten away with it. Many type manufacturers in the past have done knock-offs of Helvetica that were indistinguishable or nearly so. [...] It’s quite possible that most of the “Helvetica” seen in the ’70s was actually not Helvetica. Now, Monotype was a respected type foundry with a glorious past and perhaps the idea of being associated with these “pirates” was unacceptable. So, instead, they found a loophole and devised an “original” design that just happens to share exactly the same proportions and weight as another typeface. This, to my mind, is almost worse than an outright copy. A copy, it could be said, pays homage (if not license fees) to the original by its very existence. Arial, on the other hand, pretends to be different. It says, in effect “I’m not Helvetica. I don’t even look like Helvetica!”, but gladly steps into the same shoes. In fact, it has no other role."
- krishna2 17y agohttp://www.helveticafilm.com/ http://www.helveticafilm.com/ About the film: Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which celebrated its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.
- MikeCapone 17y agoBy total coincidence I watched that movie yesterday. I enjoyed it, though it's mostly just a bunch of people's opinion about Helvetica/modernism/post-modernism. Doesn't good much deeper than that in typeface design. Can't remember where I heard about it (possibly MetaFilter, or here?).
- anigbrowl 17y agoMeFi, it was posted there a couple of days ago including the film link. My favorite comment from the the resulting thread was 'Impact or go home, font dorks', which I have been unable to get out of my head since.
- aw3c2 17y agoThis is blogspam, http://ragbag.tumblr.com/post/187708731/arial-helvetica-on-friday-i-hosted-a-screening http://ragbag.tumblr.com/post/187708731/arial-helvetica-on-f... is the actual source.
- onreact-com 17y agoI'm afraid most hackers need a chart showing differences between Arial and Verdana or even worse, Arial and Times!
- MikeCapone 17y agoStrange timing. Yesterday I watched the documentary "Helvetica" (2007) which is all about typefaces: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/
- dreish 17y agoFunny, I was just reading about the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon recently.
- MikeCapone 17y agoThanks for giving me the name of that phenomenon. I knew about it - wasn't pretending that it was some supernatural occurance - just that even if you know about it, it still feels a bit strange when it happens.
- btn 17y agoFor people more typographically inclined, there is a much analysis and history of Arial at: http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html