Helvetica and Alternatives to Helvetica
Helvetica is a classic. Helvetica is played out. Each of these statements is true to an extent. The world’s most recognizable typeface will soon star in a new film that documents both its omnipresence and its timelessness.
There are many reasons why Helvetica is so widespread. The most obvious being that a few weights have been bundled with the Mac OS for years. It is arguably the most respectable of the “default” fonts. But it’s also used because it’s a safe, neutral choice. For many purposes, typography is more about content than style. Fans of Beatrice Warde will tell you that typographers should communicate without distraction. Helvetica, with its simple, unadorned forms, is the perfect crystal goblet. Even its ubiquity contributes to its neutrality — letters so common they become invisible.
But invisibility isn’t always appropriate, particularly in advertising or branding where individuality is key. Here we recommend our favorite fonts from the grotesque genre that offer something different from Helvetica (or Arial) — whether it’s style, warmth, or extra features like small caps, figure alternates, and additional widths.
Cool, Crisp, Clean
Much of Helvetica’s appeal comes from its cold, almost clinical modernity. Here are some related sans serif fonts that exude that vibe.
Univers™ — Univers is widely considered Adrian Frutiger’s masterpiece. Its 27 styles go from Ultra Condensed Thin to Extra Extended Black, but still give an impression of steadiness and homogeneity when combined.
Why it’s not Helv: In some ways, even more spare (no beards or tails). Uniformity across a broad spectrum of styles.
Heldustry™ — In 1978, prolific photo type designer Phil Martin added “just the right touch of Eurostile‘s squareness” to Helvetica and created a new font for a cable TV news network.
Why it’s not Helv: You’ve probably never seen it. And for those who are looking for something unique, that can be the most important characteristic.
FF Schulbuch™ — A series of fonts based on the historical textbook types used in Northern and Southern Germany, and Bavaria. The Nord (North) variant is the closest relative of Helvetica.
Why it’s not Helv: A single-story ‘a’ and tailed ‘l’. Vintage Deutsch cachet.
Neuzeit S™ — Wilhelm C. Pischner’s Neuzeit Grotesk preceded Helvetica by more than 30 years. The more humanist Neuzeit S was introduced by Linotype-Hell AG in 1966, intended for large bodies of text.
Why it’s not Helv: A gentle, almost Avenir-ish geometry.
Maxima™ — In 1990 Gerd Wunderlich revisited Univers and created this slightly more contemporary option.
Paralucent™ — The first text sans serif from Rian Hughes, a master of stylized display faces. It still shows signs of his distinctive hand, from the big round ‘i’ dots and wedge terminals to the daring lowercase ‘g’. Paralucent was designed to be more consistent than Helvetica, and a solid modern workhorse of a font, elegant enough for headline and robust enough for text.
Why it’s not Helv: Where do I start? More square than round. Extra large x-height. Extra tight spacing (loosen it up for small copy). A stencil version!
Getting Warmer
Helvetica is often classified as a “neo-grotesque”. Here are some older grotesques marked by idiosyncrasies and irregularities. They feel warmer, less manufactured — better suited for delivering subject matter that requires a more handcrafted vehicle.
Basic Commercial™ — Appearing in hot metal at the turn of the 20th century, Basic Commercial (like Akzidenz-Grotesk®) is based on designs which influenced all the modern grotesques that followed. Basic Commercial was distributed for many years in the United States under the name Standard Series which is seen most notably in Massimo Vignelli’s signage for the New York City subway.
Why it’s not Helv: Angled stroke endings (‘S’, ‘C’, ‘e’) open up the counters and add life. Taller ascenders lend elegance.
FF Bau™ — Helvetica is cold and calculated, but its roots lie in much quirkier material. Its earliest direct ancestor was first introduced around 1880. Christian Schwartz updated the family for contemporary needs without rationalizing away the spirit and warmth of the original.
Why it’s not Helv: A double-storey ‘g’. Lowercase ‘a’ keeps its tail in all weights. Optional oldstyle figures.
Monotype Grotesque™ — A British type from the 1900s, MT Grotesque’s ten very different styles read like a timeline of grots to come — Bell Gothic, Trade Gothic, Helvetica — but none of those match its warmth and character. See it big and you’ll get what I mean.
Why it’s not Helv: Delightfully irregular, a type that shows signs of rough cut metal.
Folio™ — Designed by Konrad F. Bauer and Walter Baum, and released in several weights and widths by the Bauer Type Foundry from 1956 to 1963.
Why it’s not Helv: Key differences are in ‘a’, ‘G’, and ‘Q’. Warmer and more irregular overall.
Venus™ — Created in the early 1900s, Venus precedes Helvetica by many years. Some sources note that it was designed for German map production.
Why it’s not Helv: Antique, not modernist. Very idiosyncratic for that vintage hot metal look.
ARS Region™ — A brand new release from a brand new foundry, ARS Type, Region is Helvetica with trademark Shamal oddities.
Why it’s not Helv: Would be cold and crisp if it weren’t for the soft stroke connections on letters like the ‘G’, ‘t’, and ‘k’. A lowercase ‘g’ that takes FF Meta’s lead. Small caps available.
Titling Gothic™ — The newest family on our list is also the most extensive. FB Titling Gothic is an immense series of nearly fifty styles inspired by that century-old favorite ATF Railroad Gothic (see also: Wilma).
Why it’s not Helv: Every possible width you could need for setting headlines. Antique, American flavor. Very little stroke modulation, even in heavy and wide styles.
Adesso™ — French designer Thierry Puyfoulhoux’s rounded sans is the furthest from Helvetica on this list, but it’s definitely soft and warm while maintaining the basic grotesque lettershapes.
Further Afield
P.J. Onori offers another set of alternatives for those looking for a clean sans that veers even further from Helvetica. Or you can plunge right into FontShop’s Sans fonts category and find what works best for you.
The Timeless Classic
Neue Helvetica — Despite all the substitutes, sometimes the old reliable is still the best bet. Neue Helvetica (German for “New”) is the most complete and usable set of Helvetica fonts. Over the years, the Helvetica family was expanded to include many different weights, but these were not as well coordinated with each other as they might have been. In 1983, D. Stempel AG redesigned and digitized the “Neue Helvetica” typeface for Linotype and made it a self-contained font family.
SEE MORE: View some of these typefaces in more detail in our February newsletter or test them all at once at FontShop.com.
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57 Comments:
Very nice post. I am always interested in learning of new minimalist sans typefaces. I can only use Helvetica so much before I start to feel like I’m getting in a rut.
Fantastic alternatives. However, I wish that Maxima, Folio and Venus had background information as well.
You forgot Unica? or is this only open to discussion about the fonts ‘you sell’ rather than a generalist discussion on typography?
Extremely well done all around.
J – Agreed. It’s on the way.
anon – I love Unica too. Unfortunately it’s not available for licensing anywhere due to trademark disputes. Read more about it in Corey Holms’ article for Grafik.
I would add dada grotesk (optimo.ch), akkurat (lineto), galaxie polaris (vllg) to the list.
I recommend checking out Vectora.
Thanks, SP. Vectora is certainly an underappreciated face, but I generally limited this list to grotesques that are closer to Helvetica rather than venturing into the realm of Trade and News Gothics.
I agree: good selection. I created a post about it in my cool hunting blog.
digi grotesk could also be considered.
Nice post, I like Helvetica and use it always. It’s good to see some qualities of Helvetica showed in another typefaces. Good selection.
Sorry, but you forgot the Arial Typeface. I know, typographers will hate this, but informatics still love it!
Cheers
I stumbled upon this alternative while reading about the list of the 100 best fonts ever. Very nice alternatives, altough i like the Helvetica pretty much, but it is always nice to give other fonts a chance.
What about Syntax?!
If you include Univers you have to add Frutiger too.
Hi JC, thanks for your comment. The reason Syntax and Frutiger are not included in this article is that they belong in the humanist subclass of sans serifs. Helvetica and its ilk are grotesques. If we were to include any sans that might be a replacement for Helvetica there are literally hundreds of typefaces we could offer, but the goal of this article is to list those typefaces that share most of their characteristics with Helvetica yet offer something different.
Akzidenz Grotesk!
I second that one Erik!
Yes, would definitely add the beautifully crafted Dada Grotesk, by optimo.ch
How can I get Helvcetica Neue Condensed to use in Autocad.
That depends on a number of factors, like what operating system you use the software on, what type of fonts are supported by both the AutoCad software and the aforementioned OS, and so on. Your best bet is to contact FontShop and somebody from Support or Research will get back to you.
That is a really good overview. Can’t believe that I did’t recognize this post before.
Erik B.: AG is probably not featured because Basic Commercial is basically (but not commercially) the same.
Thank you, Indra! That means a lot coming from the co-author of a critically-acclaimed book on Helvetica.
Thanks really like what i’m reading here!
i really love helvetica, but once in a while is good to have a formal refresment. good information.thanks.
I would add Akkurat (Lineto) to this list.
Nice listing. Miss AG, Arial and BMW Type, and some Folio, Heldustry, Unica. Maybe you could have added some historical background, on how this style developed form Steinschrift serif-cut-off Didot or Walbaum, on the Linotype equal character width that makes its italics so “bad”, on the crown pen, on stylistic influences, etc. Some large text samples would have been extremely usefull too.
Thanks for not mentioning Arial. This font is a typographic illness and has nothing (or less) to do with good typography.
We use Maxima and Univers quite a fair bit as alternatives. Works out well all the time I must say!
In our 2011 world… Are there any open source / royalty free alternatives that you would recommend?
You can find Arial on most machines, but I would not exactly recommend it. You know, with free fonts you usually get what you pay for. There are exceptions.
(Newbie warning)
I loved Paralucent when I first stumbled upon it, but then I came to the lowercase letter g. The designer has chosen to use the double-story lowercase g with an un-finished loop, which really stands out from the rest and makes it harder to work with in designs. For many uses, I think it would work better if the lowercase g had a tail which was similar to the lowercase y. In the italic version, the loweracse g and y have identical tails.
This raises two questions:
1. Why did the designer choose this solution?
2. Would it be possible to create an alternative version with a new lowercase g (and possibly a single-story lowercase a and a new italic lowercase f)?
I would be excited to read some answers.
I use Century Gothic almost all of the time now. Check it out.
I saw another site that recommended Swiss 721 Regular. It comes pretty close.
Arial all the way!
Arial rules, every other Helvetica alternative drools!
Adrian, Swiss 721 is Bitstream’s digitisation of Helvetica. Different name, same design.
And Willie, there is a reason why we didn’t include Arial. And it’s not because it “rules”, quite the contrary. ; )
great reading, really enjoyed it.
what about mercator? i know its not a buyable typeface, but it seems to get alot of attention….
it look’s good!
Some really sexy fonts there !
Bureau Grotesque should be in there ! And Brazilia
And Vonnes, and Maria by Phil Baber, and Neue Haas Grotesk but I guess the latter is closer to being the metal cast Helvetica than the digitized one so perhaps its more Helvetica than Helvetica !
Everyone should just make life simple and use Arial. If it’s good enough for the Internet and for Windows, it’s good enough for everything.
Everyone should just make life simple and eat potatoes. If it’s good enough for the Belgians, it’s good enough for everything. ; ) : P
We are Arial.
All your font are belong to us.
You will be assimilated!
Can you tell what is alternative to Helvetica Neue Ultralight? (LT 25)
Arial is the alternative to Helvetica Neue Upright. It is the alternative to all archaic Helvetica and its variants. Time to get with the 21st century…
I myself have come to love FF Bau as my secondary typeface (next to FF DIN). I almost went out to buy Akzidenz Grotesk but couldn’t stand Berthold’s buying options.
Erik Spiekermann via Twitter then recommended Theinhardt from Optimo to me as an alternative to Akzidenz Grotesk though, and that could have been a great choice too.
Aktiv Grotesk???
This has been rather helpful. As a young “leisure writer”, one of the feelings I most relish is that of finding THE perfect font…yanno, after eons and eons. :P Anyway, I do have a question: what font did you use where it says “post a comment”, “getting warmer”, “cool, crisp, clean”, “the timeless classic”, etcetera?…I need it for a short story. It’s just the right kind of sexy. Thanks in advance, and great job. Oh, and happy new year!
All fonts except Arial should be banned.
Arial forever. All of these other worthless fonts should be cast into the garbage-dump of history.
Microsoft knew that Helvetica was grotesque–in more ways than one–years ago. That’s why they gave us Arial to replace it with. And didn’t even charge a cent for it! Now Arial is taking over the world. Accept it and get with the program!
A multiplatform Helvetica-like font stack that suppresses Arial: http://t.co/gIxAjCJ8Rk .
Arial cannot be suppressed. Arial is taking over cyberspace and is unstoppable. Arial will be the end of all other fonts. Its reign will last forever.
Arial is the best font ever created. Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders will enter the inner circle of the pantheon of great font creators for their work on Arial. Use Arial, and nothing but Arial. There is no substitute.
What Ivan Pyotors said is not true. A lot of fonts should be banned, but limiting the world to just Arial is way too draconian. At the very least, leave Zapf Dingbats as a legal font. Anyone who refuses to use Arial for their text can use Zapf Dingbats instead.
OK, Zapf Dingbats for anyone who doesn’t want to use Arial. And we’ll also allow Wingdings, for anyone who’s too cheap to license Zapf Dingbats.
I think this blog should convert to using Zapf Dingbats as the main text font, actually. Zapf Dingbats should be used much more often than it is.
If you used Zapf Dingbats for text, no one would be able to read it!
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