Comments on: Helvetica: The Apotheosis of the Invisible Art

Helvetica: The Apotheosis of the Invisible Art

digaman — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:07:15 -0800

In 1957, Swiss typographer Max Miedinger invented "the official typeface of the 20th century" -- Helvetica [previously discussed here, via Arts and Letters Daily].

By: digaman

digaman — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:12:30 -0800

The Helvetica Meditations. A documentary film.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:18:15 -0800

Helvetica won? Dammit. I had all of my money riding on Drunk Robot Pimp compressed extra bold. Must stop gambling. I never win.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:22:12 -0800

I liked Amputée Sans-serif, but the M's looked like N's.

By: sudasana

sudasana — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:23:33 -0800

This typeface (font?) is closely connected to the subway signs of the TTC in my mind - that and other official-looking signs around cities. It's pleasantly neutral and bland, with no serifs to distract from the message. Anything you write in this has to be obeyed.

By: Mwongozi

Mwongozi — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:31:39 -0800

How to spot Arial - the differences between Helvetica and Arial.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:32:08 -0800

Arts and Letters indeed. Helvetica, I love you still.

By: tepidmonkey

tepidmonkey — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:34:08 -0800

Helvetica vs. Arial: the game.

By: digaman

digaman — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:36:37 -0800

Being an old guy, I remember when Helvetica first started appearing around NYC in the mid-late '60s. It seemed like a fresh uncluttered breeze amidst the clutter -- like orthographic air conditioning. It said: "The Man is telling you to do this, but the Man is hip enough to be clean."

By: The Deej

The Deej — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:44:02 -0800

In the Solaris commentary, Steven Soderbergh jokingly states that his use of Helvetica for the credits was his attempt to revive the use of the font.

By: oonh

oonh — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:49:55 -0800

Do not forget The Helvetica Scenario.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:02:25 -0800

Hevetica don't have nothing on Futura. But for screen display I have to say I enjoy Georgia above all.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:02:58 -0800

Helvetica that is

By: kimota

kimota — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:13:46 -0800

Helvetica's nice, but I'm convinced that Futura gave the Allies just that little bit extra necessary to win WWII. If were an art historian, that'd be my thesis.

By: kimota

kimota — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:20:44 -0800

Oh, I was looking for a link explaining Apple's Geneva font as a footnote in the history of Helvetica, and found this font history page.

By: athenian

athenian — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:01:01 -0800

kimota: Futura gave the Allies just that little bit extra necessary to win WWII. I've always thought of WWII as essentially a Gill Sans war.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:25:45 -0800

love hate relationship with lucida grande here. second futura.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:31:38 -0800

Helvetica continues to impress me with just how versatile it can be (honest!) I use the crap out of it and Univers.

By: adamgreenfield

adamgreenfield — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:41:13 -0800

Helvetica is all the tacit goodness of the world made type. It's that moment of unsuspected grace in an otherwise clumsy and crunching life. It's everything I like best about humanity, warm smooth concrete in the sun - those a's and e's most especially. Mmmm.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 13:15:21 -0800

Yes, but Gill's lower-case "g" "x" "and "z" are the stuff dreams are made of.

By: WPW

WPW — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 13:26:38 -0800

I've long had a thing for Impact, myself, but duly acknowledge Helvetica as Queen of the Font.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:31:03 -0800

Futura r0x0rs Gill Sans, any day of the week, any week of the year. Yeah, Gill's got a groovier 'g', but as that article so aptly points out, the lower-case 'a' is fucking ridiculous and unbalanced (as is the lower-case 'f'). Additionally, the lower-case 'y' is too horizontal and the lower-case 't' is positively infuriating—it looks like it was amputated, and the stump slowly curled and atrophied over time into a hideous mess. Also, I'd like to give a shout-out to my homies from the 19th century. Word up, Bodoni!

By: sneakin

sneakin — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:47:05 -0800

Awesome post, thank you

By: The Deej

The Deej — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:23:33 -0800

Such memories tied to a font. Back when I used to hand set cold type, (DAMN!) I could do anything I needed with Helvetica and Goudy Old Style. Composing stick... galley... proof press... letterpress... Man, it was TOUGH to build webpages with that stuff.

By: Haruspex

Haruspex — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:47:54 -0800

Damn, Deej, I wish I had a composing stick for webpages. Then there'd be something handy to beat the ever-loving shit out of IE6.

By: thecjm

thecjm — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:59:58 -0800

I'm going to go see this movie about Hevetica tonight.

By: greatgefilte

greatgefilte — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:34:40 -0800

thecjm, I'm thinking of seeing it as well, shall we wear our MeFi hats?

By: wendell

wendell — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:37:15 -0800

Where's the love for Bookman?

By: The Deej

The Deej — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 17:15:08 -0800

{{{{{{{{ Bookman }}}}}}}} Only on MeFi would someone boast about seeing a movie about a font, and another user demand love for a different font. Not that there's anything wrong with it.

By: Typographica

Typographica — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 17:17:38 -0800

And once the birthday festivities are over and you're finally sick of it: fonts like Helvetica.

By: The Deej

The Deej — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 17:32:01 -0800

fonts like Helvetica. posted by Typographica See?! It's not just us... even other fonts like Helvetica!

By: sindark

sindark — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 17:48:29 -0800

I spent ages choosing my thesis font and eventually decided upon Eric Gill's Perpetua. The italics are especially beautiful.

By: Artw

Artw — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 18:13:45 -0800

I actually quite like Calibri.

By: Slothrup

Slothrup — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 18:21:16 -0800

In my personal version of hell, the only typeface is Times New Roman. My all-time faves are Bodoni and Frutiger.

By: tgyg

tgyg — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 19:32:48 -0800

Nerds!

By: juiceCake

juiceCake — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 21:31:11 -0800

I'm a big fan of Futura as well. Helvetica is nice. Not the sort to say things are "evil", I will say that Comic Sans is evil, and I can't count how many times I've encountered it when dealing with new corporate clients. I have them stop. I really do.

By: taosbat

taosbat — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:04:03 -0800

I often cite Code Style to my clients, here's their font sampler index, Windows font survey results, Mac font survey results, Unix font survey results and their Combined font survey results. I hope some of y'all may have similar, perhaps better, sites to share. I design in Verdana because it takes the most space of the top percenters. I hates little feets and batwing ears.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:09:31 -0800

I am, unexpectedly, digging Calibri. It's clean and pretty.

By: thecjm

thecjm — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 00:49:35 -0800

I just got back from seeing Helvetica the movie. I would recommend it to anyone who is interesting in fonts aka everyone reading down this far. It was a fun movie, very well done, and the designers they interview are almost all interesting characters. And Erik Spiekermann is hilarious in his role as Helvetica nay-sayer.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 08:52:58 -0800

Is the Toronto Star article basically a headline and nothing more for anyone else, or is it just me? sindark writes "I spent ages choosing my thesis font" Huh - I feel a little guilty that I just used the same font I use for everything else. I spent ages building the figures though, and an eternity compiling the actual data. From a non-design-person, Windows-user perspective, I'll risk the wrath of all here to state that until Microsoft starts shipping with Helvetica, you won't see it showing up in very many corporate documents. I personally went out of my way to collect a copy, but I don't use it in my documents for one simple reason: Nobody else I collaborate with has a copy. I know Windows is supposed to seamlessly substitute Arial whenever anything calls for Helvetica, but I don't trust it to do so. (Plus, my former adviser is so technologically inept that any hint of a font substitution warning or dialog box would likely send her over the edge in panic.) taosbat writes "I often cite Code Style to my clients" Now that page was useful! Made me realize that my laptop knew I had Helvetica, but my desktop was still substituting Arial! Changed font mapping in the registry, problem solved, and site bookmarked.

By: taosbat

taosbat — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 09:20:54 -0800

I'm glad Code Style was good for you, caution live frogs. I use it to help folks select sensible fonts for their web pages.

By: digaman

digaman — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 09:33:55 -0800

Aw, the Star moved the article into its paid archive last night. A big fat Comic Sans "boo!" to that.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:56:58 -0800

Ok, you want a link? Here's a fucking awesome link. It's a study that was done where they tested readability of different popular available-for-the-web fonts. Here's a study they did with a larger set of fonts. And here's a study they did with different font sizes. Actual studies, not seat-of-the-pants "what a stupid name for a font" studies. Finally, here's a chart of just about all the usable percentage font-sizes for CSS, so you can see how different browsers render the fonts. It's kick-ass. It helps save the world. Fucking click it, you font-bitch.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:57:52 -0800

Er... in response to "I hope some of y'all may have similar, perhaps better, sites to share."

By: amberglow

amberglow — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:04:24 -0800

The Helvetica of Mexico (or so UnBeige calls it)