Editing Helvetica (section)

==History==
[[File:Geisser Plakat Mohrenball 1969.jpg|thumb|A 1969 poster by Robert Geisser exemplifying the "Swiss" style of the 1950s and 60s: solid red colour, simple images and neo-grotesque sans-serif type, all in lower case. This design appears to use Helvetica or a close imitation.]]
The first version of the typeface (which later became known as Helvetica) was designed in {{year|1956}} by Max Miedinger with art direction by Eduard Hoffmann.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kupferschmid |first=Indra |title=Neue Haas Grotesk — History |url=http://www.fontbureau.com/nhg/history/ |website=Font Bureau |access-date=29 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414132935/http://www.fontbureau.com/nhg/history/ |archive-date=14 April 2021}}</ref> His goal was to design a new sans serif typeface that could compete in the Swiss market as a neutral face that should not be given any additional meaning. The main influence on Helvetica was [[Akzidenz-Grotesk]] from [[Berthold Type Foundry|Berthold]]; Hoffman's scrapbook of proofs of the design shows careful comparison of test proofs with snippets of Akzidenz-Grotesk.<ref name="NHG Kupferschmid" /> Its 'R' with a curved tail resembles Schelter-Grotesk, another turn-of-the-century sans-serif sold by Haas.<ref name="I had never loved Helvetica" /><ref name="NHG Kupferschmid" /><ref>{{cite web|last1=Langer|first1=Axel|title=One Typeface, Two Fathers|url=http://www.helveticaforever.com/en/html/1t2f.html|website=Helvetica Forever|publisher=University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf|access-date=29 April 2018|archive-date=24 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024171603/http://www.helveticaforever.com/en/html/1t2f.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Wolfgang Homola comments that in Helvetica "the weight of the stems of the capitals and the lower case is better balanced" than in its influences.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Homola|first1=Wolfgang|title=Type design in the age of the machine. The 'Breite Grotesk' by J. G. Schelter & Giesecke|url=http://www.typefacedesign.org/resources/dissertation/2004/WolfgangHomola_dissertation.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110112014111/http://www.typefacedesign.org/resources/dissertation/2004/WolfgangHomola_dissertation.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 January 2011|publisher=University of Reading (archived)|access-date=17 January 2018}}</ref>

Attracting considerable attention on its release as ''Neue Haas Grotesk'' (''Nouvelle Antique Haas'' in French-speaking countries),{{efn|"Antique" is a term used in French for sans-serifs (for instance [[Antique Olive]]), although in English it traditionally historically referred to [[slab-serif]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title="Nouvelle Antique Haas" aka "Neue Haas Grotesk" aka "Helvetica" promotional, by Fritz Büler, Walter Bosshardt, 1959|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/54000959@N06/5988909618|website=Flickr|date=29 July 2011|publisher=Herb Lubalin Study Center|access-date=29 April 2018|archive-date=21 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621063116/https://www.flickr.com/photos/54000959@N06/5988909618|url-status=live}}</ref>}} Stempel and [[Mergenthaler Linotype Company|Linotype]] adopted Neue Haas Grotesk for release in [[Hot metal typesetting|hot metal composition]], the standard typesetting method at the time for [[body text]], and on the international market.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Montrose-Helker|first1=William|title=Post-War Type Marketing: A comparative study of three European type foundries during the 1950s and 1960s|url=https://www.academia.edu/4624122|publisher=University of Reading|access-date=29 April 2018|archive-date=3 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503150104/https://www.academia.edu/4624122|url-status=live}}</ref>

In {{year|1960}}, [[Stempel]] (the German parent company of Haas) changed the typeface's name to ''Helvetica'', to make it more marketable internationally; it comes from the Latin name for the [[Helvetii|pre-Roman tribes]] of what became Switzerland. Intending to match the success of [[Univers]], Arthur Ritzel of Stempel redesigned Neue Haas Grotesk into a larger [[typeface family]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://new.myfonts.com/person/ritzel/arthur/overview.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120527052248/http://new.myfonts.com/person/ritzel/arthur/overview.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 27, 2012 |title=myfonts: Arthur Ritzel |publisher=New.myfonts.com |date=1999-02-22 |access-date=2009-06-08 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=Helvetica & Univers|url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2011/11/from-the-archives-no-26%E2%80%94helvetica-and-univers/|website=Blue Pencil|access-date=1 July 2015|archive-date=3 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503071716/https://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2011/11/from-the-archives-no-26%E2%80%94helvetica-and-univers/|url-status=live}}</ref> The design was popular: [[Paul Shaw (design historian)|Paul Shaw]] suggests that Helvetica "began to muscle out" Akzidenz-Grotesk in New York City from around summer 1965, when Amsterdam Continental, which imported European typefaces, stopped pushing Akzidenz-Grotesk in its marketing and began to focus on Helvetica instead.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=From the Archives no. 15—Helvetica and Standard|url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2011/03/from-the-archives-no-15%E2%80%94helvetica-and-standard/|website=Paul Shaw Letter Design (blog)|access-date=27 December 2017|archive-date=22 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422132348/https://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2011/03/from-the-archives-no-15%E2%80%94helvetica-and-standard/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=From the Archives no. 17—More on Helvetica in the United States|url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2011/03/from-the-archives-no-17%E2%80%94more-on-helvetica-in-the-united-states/|website=Paul Shaw Letter Design|access-date=29 April 2018|archive-date=5 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605152649/https://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2011/03/from-the-archives-no-17%e2%80%94more-on-helvetica-in-the-united-states/|url-status=live}}</ref> It was also made available for [[phototypesetting]] systems, as well as in other formats such as [[Letraset]] dry transfers<ref>{{cite book|last1=Müller|first1=Lars|last2=Malsy|first2=Victor|last3=Langer|first3=Axel|last4=Kupferschmid|first4=Indra|title=Helvetica Forever: Story of a Typeface|date=2009|publisher=Lars Müller|location=Baden, Switzerland|isbn=978-3-03778-121-0}}</ref> and plastic letters,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=Blue Pencil no. 19—Helvetica and the New York City Subway System|url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2012/03/blue-pencil-no-19%E2%80%94helvetica-and-the-new-york-city-subway-system/|website=Paul Shaw Letter Design|access-date=29 April 2018|archive-date=30 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430114609/http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2012/03/blue-pencil-no-19%e2%80%94helvetica-and-the-new-york-city-subway-system/|url-status=live}}</ref> and many phototypesetting imitations and knock-offs were rapidly created by competing phototypesetting companies.<ref name="The Scourge of Arial" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Craig|first1=James|last2=Malmstrom|first2=Margit|title=Phototypesetting: a design manual.|date=1978|publisher=Watson-Guptill|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8230-4011-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/phototypesetting0000crai/page/35 35]|quote=Helvetica is, without a doubt, the most widely used sans serif typeface.|edition=1st|url=https://archive.org/details/phototypesetting0000crai/page/35}}</ref>

In the late 1970s and 1980s, Linotype licensed Helvetica to [[Xerox]], [[Adobe Systems|Adobe]] and [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], guaranteeing its importance in digital printing by making it one of the core [[computer font]]s of the [[PostScript]] page description language.<ref name="Blue Pencil no. 18—Some history about Arial" /><ref>{{cite web|last1=Simonson|first1=Mark|author-link=Mark Simonson|title=Monotype's Other Arials|date=21 February 2001 |url=http://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/monotypes-other-arials|publisher=Mark Simonson Studio|access-date=14 July 2015|archive-date=15 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715015912/http://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/monotypes-other-arials|url-status=live}}</ref> This led to a version being included on Macintosh computers, with [[Arial]] (a metrically compatible clone) included with Microsoft Windows computers. The rights to Helvetica are now held by [[Monotype Imaging]], which acquired Linotype; the Neue Haas Grotesk digitisation (discussed below) was co-released with Font Bureau.<ref name="I had never loved Helvetica" />

=== Characteristics ===
[[File:Final tipo.png|thumb|Helvetica's tight [[Counter (typography)|apertures]] contribute to a regular, dense design.]]
* Tall [[x-height]], which makes it easier to read at distance.
* Tight spacing between letters.
* An [[oblique type|oblique]] rather than [[italic type|italic]] style, a common feature of almost all grotesque and neo-grotesque typefaces.
* Wide capitals of uniform width, particularly obvious in the wide 'E' and 'F'.
* Square-looking 's'.
* Bracketed top flag of '1'.
* Rounded off square tail of 'R'.
* Concave curved stem of '7'.
* Two-storied 'a' (with curves of bowl and stem), a standard neo-grotesque feature, and single-storey 'g'

{{Quote box
| quote = Helvetica can't do everything...it can be really weak in small sizes. Shapes like 'C' and 'S' curl back into themselves, leaving tight "[[Aperture (typography)|apertures]]"—the channels of white between a letter's interior and exterior... The lowercase 'e', the most common letter in English and many other languages, takes an especially unobliging form. These and other letters can be a pixel away from being some other letter.
| source = [[Tobias Frere-Jones]]<ref>{{cite web|last1=Covert|first1=Adrian|title=Why Apple's New Font Won't Work On Your Desktop|url=http://www.fastcodesign.com/3031432/why-apples-new-font-wont-work-on-your-desktop|website=FastCoDesign|date=3 June 2014|access-date=28 November 2014|archive-date=6 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706205422/https://www.fastcodesign.com/3031432/why-apples-new-font-wont-work-on-your-desktop|url-status=live}}</ref>
| width = 30%
| salign = right
| align = right
}}
Like many neo-grotesque designs, Helvetica has narrow [[Aperture (typography)|apertures]], which limits its legibility onscreen and at small print sizes. It also has no visible difference between upper-case 'i' and lower-case 'L', although the number 1 is quite identifiable with its flag at top left.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Spiekermann|first1=Erik|title=Helvetica Sucks|url=http://spiekermann.com/en/helvetica-sucks/|website=Spiekermann blog|access-date=15 July 2015|archive-date=5 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605180335/https://spiekermann.com/en/helvetica-sucks/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Spiekermann|first1=Erik|title=Distinct lettershapes are important. Or can you work out this code? 1, I or l?|url=https://twitter.com/espiekermann/status/608914001070845952|website=Twitter|access-date=14 June 2015|archive-date=5 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605180327/https://twitter.com/espiekermann/status/608914001070845952|url-status=live}}</ref> Its tight, display-oriented spacing may also pose problems for legibility.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Spolsky|first1=Joel|title=User Interface Design For Programmers|url=http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/fog0000000249.html|website=Joel On Software|date=24 October 2001|access-date=15 July 2015|archive-date=19 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119025604/http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/fog0000000249.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Other computer fonts intended for legibility at small sizes such as [[Verdana]], [[FF Meta|Meta]], [[Trebuchet MS|Trebuchet]], or a [[monospace font]] such as [[Courier (typeface)|Courier]], which makes all letters quite wide, may be more appropriate than Helvetica.