About the font
The Helvetica font was created by Max Miedinger, a Swiss font designer, and Eduard Hoffmann, a Swiss-type designer, in 1957. The Helvetica font also goes by the name Neue Haas Grotesk.
Helvetica is not an original font. An 1896 typeface called Akzidnez-Grotesk inspired this font. It became a Swiss fashion in the late 20th century. In 1960, it was commercially named. This font was designed to serve multiple purposes.
Helvetica is notoriously popular. Because the thin design makes it easy to read on a screen, it’s ideal for those who seek order and flexibility in their writing.
There are many uses for it. “Helvetica,” a documentary released in 2007, takes inspiration from this font. The film won several awards. This typeface is aesthetically pleasing, making it a good choice for website design. Helvetica is a versatile typeface with a variety of styles and weights. The font is suitable for many uses.
It soon overtook other typefaces of that time, along with other Swiss and German typefaces of the 19th century. In the past, the type foundry offered various weights, widths, text sizes, and corresponding designs for non-Latin alphabets.
Helvetica had a thick, solid look because of its high x-height and stroke endings on horizontal and vertical lines. At first, it had very close spacing between letters.
Usage
Due to the hype of this font, it has been picked up by the famous brands like: Skype, Sears, Panasonic etc. Until 2015, iOS was designed with Helvetica as the system typeface. You can see some real use of this font in famous brands.
The USA used this font broadly in several places. Major usage of Helvetica in America could be spotted on transportations, federal, and government sectors.
This typeface is best suited for: Publications such as periodicals, posters, and greeting cards often include the logo design.
It is also being used in Ads, banners, and visuals for social media. Helvetica is the best suite for books. That’s why it is the publishers’ favorite. Due to the simplicity of this font it is easy to read. It doesn’t disturb the eyes for long term reading. However, this font is also used in templates for email marketing.
The usage of the Helvetica typeface has also been a source of controversy. Typographers and designers say that Helvetica is a bad font because it lacks individuality and nuance.
It’s also argued by some designers that Helvetica is a welcome break from serif typefaces; since it improves readability. A lack of style or design in the typeface may be made up for by this font. Right now, you may experience how Helvetica appears in real-world documents by using it as a typeface in your own work.
There are some recent examples of this font’s usage. Helvetica became the team’s kit design for UEFA Euro 2020 in 2019. As of 2021, Liebherr Group uses HVD Fabrikat as its corporate identity, which was previously based on Helvetica Neue.
Font View
Before downloading the typeface, you can preview the characters to better understand how they will appear on your creative projects.
Font in use
Font information
| Name | Helvetica Font |
| Designer | Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann |
| Type | Sans-Serif |
| Format | OTF, TTF |
| License | Freeware and Commercial |
License Information
Currently, the Font cannot be used for free. It is a commercial font manufactured by Linotype. Consequently, you must purchase the font from the owner. The font comes with six different licenses:
Helvetica Font Family
- Helvetica Neue Regular
- Helvetica Neue 66 Medium Italic
- Helvetica Neue Black
- Helvetica Neue Black font
- Helvetica 25 UltraLight Regular
- Helvetica 25 UltraLight Regular font
- Helvetica 35 Thin Regular
- Helvetica 35 Thin Regular font
- Helvetica 45 Light Regular
- Helvetica 45 Light Regular font
- Helvetica 55 Roman Regular
- Helvetica 55 Roman Regular font
- Helvetica 65 Medium Regular
- Helvetica 65 Medium Regular font
- Helvetica 25 UltraLight Italic
- Helvetica 25 UltraLight Italic font
- Helvetica 35 Thin Italic
- Helvetica 35 Thin Italic font
- Helvetica 45 Light Italic
- Helvetica 45 Light Italic font
- Helvetica 55 Roman Italic
- Helvetica 55 Roman Italic font
- Helvetica 65 Medium Bold
- Helvetica 65 Medium Bold font
- Helvetica 65 Medium Bold Italic
Font Pairing
- Helvetica+Self Modern
- Helvetica+Schnyder
- Helvetica+Suisse Works
- Helvetica+Ortica
- Helvetica+Times New Roman
Similar Fonts
Numerous fonts are very similar to the Helvetica Font. Examples include:
- Helvetica Now
- Neue Haas Grotesk Text
- Chalet Book
- Pragmatica
- Adelle Sans
- Aileron
Supported Languages
This font supports 102 different languages such as Urdu, Arabic, Spanish, English, Portuguese, Russian, Persian, German, French, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Kurdish (Latin), Kurdish (Latin), Turkish, Greek, Hungarian, Serbian (Latin), Czech, Serbian (Cyrillic), Kazakh (Latin), Bulgarian, Hebrew, Swedish, Belarusian (Cyrillic), Belarusian (Latin), Croatian, Slovak, Finnish, Danish, Lithuanian, etc. (Please note that not all languages are available for all formats.)
- DESKTOP FONT LICENSE
- DIGITAL ADS LICENSE
- WEB FONT LICENSE
- MOBILE APPLICATION LICENSE
- ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION LICENSE
- SERVER LICENSE
FAQs
Ans: Helvetica means “Swiss” in Latin.
Ans: For personal use, you can download this font for free, but you will need permission from the owner if you want to use it commercially.
Ans: It is a very popular font across the globe.
Ans: Akzidenz Grotesk often refers to the grandfather of helvetica fonts, and is the most similar.
Ans: Yes, cause Helvetica is broadly used by book publishers.