AG Schoolbook is a further departure based on AG Book. Versions with distinctive forms (‘a’, ‘l’) for young readers. Helvetica Textbook, AG Schoolbook, FF Schulbuch.In some ways, this is more Helvetica than “Helvetica”. Just released, a major effort to restore the original concept that was lost over the last 50 years. More uniformity across weights, but sacrifices to individual styles that push it further from the original vision.
Though keep in mind that there are various products from Linotype and Adobe that may have slightly different shapes and character sets.Ī 1980s effort to unify the family that had grown large and disparate. Some of these were adaptations to fit the typesetting technology that was available at the time, others are simply renditions by foundries that didn’t own the rights to the original. Like many of the classic pre-digital typefaces Helvetica has seen its share of revisions and reinterpretations over the years.
With that in mind, here’s a quick summary of the many versions of the design and some worthy alternatives. It’s enough to say there are good reasons to use Helvetica, and there are good reasons to avoid it. The causes of Helvetica’s ubiquity are too complex to do justice here, but are covered pretty well in Gary Hustwit’s 2007 documentary which also gave screentime to its most ardent fans and detractors. There is ample evidence of this here at Identifont where Helvetica regularly leads our Popular fonts list, alternating the top spot with Gotham. More than 50 years after its release, and subsequent leap to popularity, Helvetica retains its place as the designer’s “default” and the world’s most widely known typeface, familiar to typographers and laypeople alike.