LOGIN

CONTACT US

ABOUT US
Advanced Font & Keyword Search
Return Home
Fonts A to Z
Font Categories
Font Licensing
Best Sellers
Font Foundries
New Font Releases
Special Offers
Free Fonts
Helvetica
Neue Helvetica
Chinese CJK
Custom Fonts
Web Fonts
Corporate Fonts
Font Family Packs
Font Collections
Platinum Collections
Font Libraries
Barcode Fonts
Font Box
Image Collections
Type Books
Online Accounts
Font Licensing
Font Identification
Screen Fonts
News
Blog
Newsletters
Newsletter Archive
Download PDFs
Interviews
Display Case
About OpenType
Used & Abused
About Us
Contact Details
Business Terms
Website Terms
Privacy Policy
Trademarks
FontBox

 

Ten Year Itch
House 33
Berthold Types
Darren Scott
DSType
G-Type
Identikal
Wiescher Design
Helvetica

Helvetica - Overview and Background


Helvetica is probably the most popular and widely used typeface ever created and continues to be one of the most sought after and frequently specified sans-serifs. It has clean lines, neutrality and great clarity that make it perfect for a wide variety of applications from corporate identity to newspapers, signage and advertising.

Helvetica was originally known as Neue Haas Grotesk and was designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger for the Haas Type Foundry based in Switzerland. In 1960 the name was changed to Helvetica (an daptation of "Helvetia", the Latin name for Switzerland).

Following the original Max Miedinger design, a number of additional Helvetica versions were created by a variety of designers that include: Helvetica Compressed, Helvetica Textbook, Helvetica Inserat and Helvetica Rounded.

In 1983 D. Stempel AG & Linotype gave Helvetica a complete overhaul and produced updated versions called Neue Helvetica also know as Helvetica Neue. Click on Neue Helvetica for more information.

Download the Helvetica fonts.pdf here.

Links to popular alternative Helvetica cuts can be found further down the page.

Helvetica - Buying Choices

Helvetica World

Helvetica World is a specially created version of Helvetica that supports Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew and Vietnamese all from within a single font (effectively combining a suite of fonts in one file). This extensive language support is made possible by exploiting the capabilities of OpenType font technology and unicode. Each Helvetica World font contains 1,866 different characters that include the following Microsoft code pages:

1252 – Latin 1, Western European
1250 – Latin 2, Central & Eastern European
1251 – Cyrillic
1253 – Greek
1254 – Turkish
1255 – Hebrew
1256 – Arabic
1257 – Baltic
1258 – Vietnamese

Helvetica World is available in a choice of four different fonts.

Helvetica World – Buying Choices

Helvetica – Popular Alternative Cuts

Apart from the ever-present Arial, there are many alternative typeface designs that are extremely similar to Helvetica and indistinguishable to the untrained eye, however, there will be small spacing and character design differences, character sets also vary. These alternative products also have different licensing terms, if you require licensing advice please contact us for further information.

Popular alternatives:

Aktiv Grotesk (Dalton Maag)
Pragmatica (Paratype)
Swiss (Bitstream)
Nimbus Sans (URW)

Linotype from
£94.00
Linotype from
£89.99
Linotype from
£149.00
Linotype from
£52.99
Linotype from
£505.00
Linotype from
£189.99
Linotype from
£139.00

Linotype from
£28.00
Linotype from
£28.00
Linotype from
£28.00
Linotype from
£28.00
Linotype from
£28.00
Linotype from
£28.00
Linotype from
£28.00
Linotype from
£36.00
Linotype from
£36.00

Helvetica Rounded
Helvetica Compressed
Helvetica Cyrillic
Helvetica Greek

More Helvetica



Guest
0 items View
Total £ 0.00




PayPal now at type.co.uk


Receive regular e-news bulletins packed with new releases and special offers!



Key benefits:

  • shop without c/card
  • monthly invoice
  • purchase history
  • backup resource
  • premium content






Nutcase from ArtyType


DST Dobra Slab font family


Web Development by Go Live UK