11/05/2010

Ah,ha another old chestnut…

Graphic Designers, often like to assert their skill, training, taste and 'eye' by claiming moral high-ground in being able to identify and associate with 'better' cuts or digital versions of fonts. Two classic fonts that have become ubiquitous with the PC and Mac are Arial and Helvetica.

Some background information — provided by
http://ilovetypography.com/2007/10/06/arial-versus-helvetica/

Helvetica
Designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger, Helvetica’s design is based on that of Akzidenz Grotesk (1896), and classified as a Grotesque or Transitional san serif face. Originally it was called Neue Haas Grotesque; in 1960 it was revised and renamed Helvetica (Latin for Switzerland “Swiss”).

Arial
Designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders for Monotype (not Microsoft), it’s classified as Neo Grotesque, was originally called Sonoran San Serif, and was designed for IBM’s bitmap font laser printers. It was first supplied with Windows 3.1 (1992) and was one of the core fonts in all subsequent versions of Windows until Vista, when to all intents and purposes, it was replaced with Calibri.

In the 'soft copy' digital age, is this argument or plain snobbery redundant?

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