To set the record straight, whether you like Helvetica and/or Arial or not ...
Arial and Helvetica are totally different san serif fonts from different
foundries.
Arial is from Monotype and not from Microsoft. Microsoft licensed a special
version
of Arial from Monotype for bundling with Windows and other software (notably,
Office).
Helvetica was not designed by Herman Zapf.
What was "special" about the version of Arial licensed by Monotype to Microsoft
was
that the "set widths" of the glyphs in Arial were made to match the "set
widths" of
corresponding glyphs in the version of Helvetica that Adobe licensed from
Linotype,
thus providing a host-based substitution font for the printer-based Helvetica in
Adobe PostScript printers. Similar hackery was performed by a number of
CloneScript
providers to provide printer-based "work-alike" fonts to substitute for
Helvetica,
one example being BitStream's "Swiss 721 SWA" family (where "SWA" is "set width
adapted" to correspond to the set widths of PostScript base-35 fonts) which was
admittedly and unabashedly a knock-off of Helvetica and specifically the
Helvetica
used in Adobe PostScript.
Ironically, for Windows users, the fact that Microsoft used a work-alike font to
substitute for Helvetica (and did similarly for other Adobe PostScript base-35
fonts),
eliminated a major source of problems that plagues Macintosh users to this day.
Apple chose to license Helvetica, Times, Palatino, and ITC Zapf Dingbats with
compatible set widths to those in the Adobe PostScript base-35 font set and then
convert same to TrueType format and then bundled same with MacOS. Unfortunately,
those fonts aren't quite the same as the Adobe PostScript base 35 fonts, but do
share identical names. Macintosh users who wish to use any of those base 35
fonts
still need to choose whether to use the host-based Apple TrueType fonts (and not
install the Adobe Type 1 fonts, simultaneously making sure to always download
those
fonts to the printer and/or embed same in PDF files) or to install the Adobe
Type 1
versions of the fonts and totally blow away the MacOS TrueType versions. You
have
no idea how many prepress and PDF problems we run into due to this particular
conflict due to identical font names.
- Dov
PS: Remember that "font" is a four letter word beginning with an 'f'.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Graeme R Forbes
> Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 1:22 AM
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: Re: Standard font for technical documentation
>
>
> Syed said:
>
> "Helvetica for all headers. I used to use Arial, but was clearly shown
> (in this list! :)) that Helvetica looks a lot better in larger sizes
> (like headers) and in printed form - better curves, etc."
>
>
> I missed this discussion but I'm not surprised. I've read in more than one
> place
> in the typographical literature that Arial was a cheap knock-off of Helvetica
> that
> Microsoft cobbled together to avoid paying royalties (to Herman Zapf or
> Linotype?). (This story may be false but it *sounds* true!) Apparently there
> is no
> way that font designers can protect their work -- anyone with the right
> software
> can copy what may have taken months of effort, change the name, and sell it or
> give it away.
>
> Graeme Forbes
