This led to the design of the Arial typeface in 1982, by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders for Monotype Typography. Arial’s TaleĪt about the same time that Adobe was developing PostScript, Monotype won the contract to provide fonts for IBM’s first big laser-xerographic printers. In the mid 1980s, Helvetica virtually became a household name when it, along with Times Roman® and Courier, were made core fonts in Apple® Computer’s operating system and laser printers – ushering in desktop publishing. Helvetica has since gone on to become one of the most well-known and widely used typefaces in the world. Linotype added more weights and began heavily promoting the family. When Haas became part of the Linotype group of companies, the name was changed to Helvetica (an adaptation of 'Helvetia', the Latin name for Switzerland). Its original name, Neue Haas Grotesk, reflects this heritage. His objective was to create a neutral, legible sans serif typeface that could compete with the Akzidenz Grotesk® typeface – and could be used in a broad variety of applications. Helvetica was originally designed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger for the Haas Type Foundry in Switzerland. What’s the story behind these two polarizing typeface designs? Here’s the scoop! The Helvetica Story

Graphic designers either love or hate the designs.

We’ve all heard of the Arial® and Helvetica® typefaces, and have most likely used them both. The primary differences between Arial and Helvetica can easily be seen in the distinguishing characters shown above: Helvetica’s terminal strokes are either horizontally or vertically cut, while those of Arial are slightly angled, the cap G in Helvetica has a spur while Arial does not, the leg of the cap Rs are dramatically different in shape and position, and the overall shapes are more rounded in Arial than Helvetica.