Helvetica clones Helvetica




1 helvetica clones

1.1 nimbus sans
1.2 arial , ms sans serif
1.3 cnn sans
1.4 free helvetica substitute fonts





helvetica clones

comparison of helvetica, arial, , bitstream vera, humanist design not based on helvetica


as 1 of iconic typefaces of twentieth century, derivative designs based on helvetica rapidly developed, taking advantage of lack of copyright protection in phototypesetting font market of 1960s , 70s onwards. of these straight clones, intended direct substitutes. many of these indistinguishable helvetica, while add subtle differences.


substitute helvetica designs have survived or originated during digital period have included monotype s arial, compugraphic s cg triumvirate, paratype s pragmatica, bitstream s swiss 721, urw++ s nimbus sans, scangraphic s europa grotesk , others.


nimbus sans

urw++ produced modification of helvetica called nimbus sans. extremely large font family optical sizes spaced different sizes of text , other variants such stencil styles. florian hardwig has described display-oriented styles, tight spacing, more reminiscent of helvetica used in 1970s cold type official helvetica digitisation.


arial , ms sans serif

monotype s arial, designed in 1982, while different helvetica in several details, has identical character widths, , indistinguishable non-specialists. characters c, g, r, q, 1, a, e, r, , t useful distinguishing arial , helvetica. differences include:



helvetica s strokes typically cut either horizontally or vertically. visible in t, r, f, , c. arial employs slanted stroke cuts.
helvetica s g has well-defined spur; arial not.
the tail of helvetica s r more upright whereas arial s r more diagonal.
the number 1 of helvetica has square angle underneath upper spur, arial has curve.
the q glyph in helvetica has straight cross mark, while cross mark in arial has slight snake-like curve.

the design created substitute helvetica in digital printing, since helvetica standard font design in market. arial (and many other clones of period) metrically identical postscript version of helvetica, document designed in helvetica displayed , printed correctly without ibm having pay helvetica license.


microsoft s helv design, later known ms sans serif , sans-serif typeface shares many key characteristics helvetica, including horizontally , vertically aligned stroke terminators , more-uniform stroke widths within glyph.


cnn sans

in 2016, cnn introduced helvetica neue-inspired font designed monotype imaging known cnn sans. font commissioned in 30 different weights facilitate multi-platform usage across properties.


cnn sans has resemblance helvetica, while adding few modifications in characters, notably numerical 1 having base, helvetica doesn t have.


free helvetica substitute fonts

nimbus sans l, version of urw s nimbus sans spaced match standard linotype/postscript version of helvetica, released under gnu general public license in 1996, , donated ghostscript project create free postscript alternative. (or derivative) used open-source software such r system font. derivative of family known tex gyre heros has been prepared use in tex scientific document preparation software.


freesans, free font descending urw++ nimbus sans l, in turn descends helvetica. 1 of free (gpl) fonts developed in gnu freefont project, first published in 2002.


liberation sans metrically equivalent font arial developed steve matteson @ ascender , published red hat under sil open font license. used in gnu/linux distributions default font replacement arial. oracle funded additional development of liberation sans narrow in 2010. google commissioned variation named arimo chrome os.


much more loosely, roboto developed christian robertson of google system font android operating system; has more condensed design influence of straight-sided geometric designs din 1451.








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