Helvetica™

A font family tree displays different foundries’ versions, or a foundry’s different cuts, of basically the same typeface design.

Helvetica™   Linotype Font Family — 35 styles
Helvetica®   Adobe Font Family — 27 styles — from $29.00
Helvetica Condensed   Letraset Font Family — 2 styles — from $39.96
Nimbus Sans   URW++ Font Family — 75 styles — from $19.95
Nimbus Sans Novus   URW++ Font Family — 46 styles — from $19.95
Swiss 721™   Bitstream Font Family — 32 styles — from $24.75
Swiss 911   Bitstream Font Family — 3 styles — from $24.75
Helvetica   Monotype Imaging Font Family — 27 styles
Helvetica World™   Linotype Font Family — 4 styles
Nimbus Sans No 4   URW++ Font Family — 1 style

Helvetica

This typeface was initially released as Neue Haas Grotesk, and was designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger for the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas Type Foundry) in Switzerland.

The name was changed to Helvetica (an adaptation of Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland) by Walter Cunz when D. Stempel AG, a major stockholder in Haas, reworked the design for Linotype GmbH in Frankfurt, a major stockholder in Stempel. The Mergenthaler Linotype Company in New York, then a major stockholder of Linotype GmbH, adopted the design, and it rapidly became the most popular sanserif in the world, replacing Futura.

Helvetica is designed as a strong central series, with condensed and extended forms and extreme weights adapted and added later, a system which suited Linotype mechanical limitations and marketing philosophy, but which resulted in a family of weights that were not as well coordinated as they might have been.

Linotype’s limited licensing forced a large number of unauthorized copies of Helvetica, none of which may be viewed as an improvement.

Helvetica Compressed

Designed by Matthew Carter at Mergenthaler in 1965, one of a series of heavy, closely fitted, large x-height Swiss Sanserifs that follow a pattern started by Edouard Hoffmann at Haas in 1945 with Commerciale Compacte; the original name reveals the purpose.

Helvetica

Some words from Linotype:

With the name Helvetica (Latin for Swiss), this font has the objective and functional style which was associated with Swiss typography in the 1950s and 1960s. It is perfect for international correspondence: no ornament, no emotion, just clear presentation of information. Helvetica is still one of the best selling sans-serif fonts.

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