SV: Standard font for technical documentation

[Jacob Schäffer]

Thanks, Dov !!!

Actually, neither "Helvetica" as most people know it nor "Arial" nor the
"Swiss XXX" variants offer the original Helvetica type face.

The original Helvetica was developed in 1957 with the aim to create a
neutral, "grotesk" typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in
its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage. In 1960, the
typeface's name was changed to Helvetica (derived from Confoederatio
Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland) in order to make it more
marketable internationally (therefore also the Bitstream "Swiss" named
variant). See Wikipedia for further details.

The version Adobe adopted as a ROM resident font in base 13, base 14 or base
35 PostScript printers (or whichever "base XX") actually wasn't as good as
the ones implemented by cathode tupe based imagesetters (i.e. the generation
before the laser technology). The type 1 "hinting" was good at that time,
but not as good as we can get it today with TrueType outlines. Spacing,
ligatures and some other things wasn't optimized (and TrueType didn't
exist).

Hence, in 1983 Linotype released a "refined" version called "Helvetca Neue"
via it's daughter company Stempel AG. "Helvetica Neue" is MUCH better than
Helvetica in all of its variants for any purpose, but it's not a free font
and MUST be embedded in electronic documents such as PDF. Anyway, it's worth
every cent in display previews and print, I believe. And it offers a LOT of
more faces than the standard four, 51 to be precise.

Best regards / Med venlig hilsen
Jacob Schäffer  |  Chief Developer
Grafikhuset (House of Graphics)
Paradis Allé 22, Ramløse
DK-3200 Helsinge, Denmark
Phone: +45 4439 4400
Email: js at grafikhuset.dk
Web: www.grafikhuset.net


-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] På vegne af Dov Isaacs
Sendt: 22. juli 2009 17:56
Til: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Emne: RE: Standard font for technical documentation

To set the record straight, whether you like Helvetica and/or Arial or not
...

Arial and Helvetica are totally different san serif fonts from different
foundries.
Arial is from Monotype and not from Microsoft. Microsoft licensed a special
version
of Arial from Monotype for bundling with Windows and other software
(notably, Office).

Helvetica was not designed by Herman Zapf.

What was "special" about the version of Arial licensed by Monotype to
Microsoft was
that the "set widths" of the glyphs in Arial were made to match the "set
widths" of
corresponding glyphs in the version of Helvetica that Adobe licensed from
Linotype,
thus providing a host-based substitution font for the printer-based
Helvetica in
Adobe PostScript printers. Similar hackery was performed by a number of
CloneScript
providers to provide printer-based "work-alike" fonts to substitute for
Helvetica,
one example being BitStream's "Swiss 721 SWA" family (where "SWA" is "set
width
adapted" to correspond to the set widths of PostScript base-35 fonts) which
was
admittedly and unabashedly a knock-off of Helvetica and specifically the
Helvetica
used in Adobe PostScript.

Ironically, for Windows users, the fact that Microsoft used a work-alike
font to
substitute for Helvetica (and did similarly for other Adobe PostScript
base-35 fonts),
eliminated a major source of problems that plagues Macintosh users to this
day.
Apple chose to license Helvetica, Times, Palatino, and ITC Zapf Dingbats
with
compatible set widths to those in the Adobe PostScript base-35 font set and
then
convert same to TrueType format and then bundled same with MacOS.
Unfortunately,
those fonts aren't quite the same as the Adobe PostScript base 35 fonts, but
do
share identical names. Macintosh users who wish to use any of those base 35
fonts
still need to choose whether to use the host-based Apple TrueType fonts (and
not
install the Adobe Type 1 fonts, simultaneously making sure to always
download those
fonts to the printer and/or embed same in PDF files) or to install the Adobe
Type 1
versions of the fonts and totally blow away the MacOS TrueType versions. You
have
no idea how many prepress and PDF problems we run into due to this
particular
conflict due to identical font names.

	- Dov

PS:	Remember that "font" is a four letter word beginning with an 'f'.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Graeme R Forbes
> Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 1:22 AM
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: Re: Standard font for technical documentation
> 
> 
> Syed said:
> 
> "Helvetica for all headers. I used to use Arial, but was clearly shown
> (in this list! :)) that Helvetica looks a lot better in larger sizes
> (like headers) and in printed form - better curves, etc."
> 
> 
> I missed this discussion but I'm not surprised. I've read in more than one
place
> in the typographical literature that Arial was a cheap knock-off of
Helvetica that
> Microsoft cobbled together to avoid paying royalties (to Herman Zapf or
> Linotype?). (This story may be false but it *sounds* true!) Apparently
there is no
> way that font designers can protect their work -- anyone with the right
software
> can copy what may have taken months of effort, change the name, and sell
it or
> give it away.
> 
> Graeme Forbes
_______________________________________________


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