Helvetica’s 50-year anniversary celebrations in 2007 were overwhelming and contagious. We saw the movie. Twice. We bought the shirts and the buttons. We dug out the homage books and re-read the hate articles. We mourned the fading non-color of an old black shirt proudly exclaiming that “HELVETICA IS NOT AN ADOBE FONT”. We took part in long conversations discussing the merits of the Swiss classic, that most sacred of typographic dreamboats, outlasting its builder and tenants to go on alone and saturate the world with the fundamental truth of its perfect logarithm. We swooned again over its subtleties (“Ah, that mermaid of an R!”). We rehashed decades-old debates about “Hakzidenz,” “improvement in mind” and “less is more.” We dutifully cursed every single one of Helvetica’s knockoffs. We breathed deeply and closed our eyes on perfect Shakti Gawain-style visualizations of David Carson hack'n'slashing Arial — using a Swiss Army knife, no less — with all the infernal post-brutality of his creative disturbance and disturbed creativity. We then sailed without hesitation into the absurdities of analyzing Helvetica’s role in globalization and upcoming world blandness (China beware! Helvetica will invade you as silently and transparently as a sheet of rice paper!). And at the end of a perfect celebratory day, we positively affirmed à la Shakti, and solemnly whispered the energy of our affirmation unto the universal mind: “We appreciate Helvetica for getting us this far. We are now ready for release and await the arrival of the next head snatcher.” The great hype of Swisspalooza '07 prompted a look at Max Miedinger, the designer of Neue Haas Grotesk (later renamed to Helvetica). Surprisingly, what little biographical information available about Miedinger indicates that he was a typography consultant and type sales rep for the Haas foundry until 1956, after which time he was a freelance graphic designer — rather than the full-time type designer most Helvetica enthusiasts presume him to have been. It was under that freelance capacity that he was commissioned to design the regular and bold weights of Neue Haas Grotesk typeface. His role in designing Helvetica was never really trumpeted until long after the typeface attained global popularity. And, again surprisingly, Miedinger designed two more typefaces that seem to have been lost to the dust of film type history. One is called Pro Arte (1954), a very condensed Playbill-like slab serif that is similar to many of its genre. The other, made in 1964, is much more interesting. Its original name was Horizontal. Here it is, lest it becomes a Haas-been, presented to you in digital form by Canada Type under the name of its original designer, Miedinger, the Helvetica King. The original film face was a simple set of bold, panoramically wide caps and figures that give off a first impression of being an ultra wide Gothic incarnation of Microgramma. Upon a second look, they are clearly more than that. This face is a quirky, very non-Akzidental take on the vernacular, mostly an exercise in geometric modularity, but also includes some unconventional solutions to typical problems (like thinning the midline strokes across the board to minimize clogging in three-storey forms). This digital version introduces four new weights, ranging from Thin to Medium, alongside the bold original. The Miedinger package comes in all popular font formats, and supports Western, Central and Eastern European languages, as well as Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish and Celtic/Welsh. A few counter-less alternates are included in the fonts.

Linoset was created from cut and printed linoleum. The lettering is based on Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold – it has been cut, printed and re-drawn to take on a completely new life – it's rough, tough and downright nasty!

Bebas Neue SemiRounded is the Bebas Neue with rounded corners. As you know, Bebas Neue is the most widely used free font recently. This semi-rounded version is the new style for more widely use. The basic theory and proportion are same as Bebas Neue but rounded shape gives a warm, soft and natural impression. A bit more rigid than Bebas Neue Rounded. Available at an affordable price.

Neue Haas Unica by Toshi Omagari: The original purpose behind the creation of the typeface Haas Unica was to provide a sympathetic update of Helvetica. But now the font designer Toshi Omagari has decided to make this typeface his own and has thus significantly supplemented and extended it. In the late 1970s, at the same time at which hot metal typesetting was being replaced by phototypesetting, the Haas Type Foundry commissioned a group of specialists known as "Team '77" consists of Andre Gurtler, Christian Mengelt and Erich Gschwind to adapt Max Miedinger's font The characters of Haas Unica are somewhat narrower than those of Helvetica so that the larger bowls, such as those of the "b" and "d", appear more delicate and have a slightly more pleasing effect. In general, the spacing of Haas Unica was increased to provide for improved kerning and thus enhance the legibility of the typeface in smaller point sizes. Major changes were made to the lowercase "a", in that the curve of the upper bowl became rounder and its spur was eliminated. The form of the "k" was additionally modified to remove the offset leg so that both diagonals originate from the main stem. The outstroke of the uppercase "J" was also significantly curtailed. In addition to many minor alterations, such as to the length of the horizontal bars of the "E", "F" and "G" and to the angle of the tail of the "Q", the leg of the "R" was extended and made more diagonal. In the case of the numerals, the upper curve of the "2" was reduced and the lower loops of the "5" and "6" were correspondingly adapted. The sweep of the diagonal of the "7" was also reduced. Several decades later, Toshi Omagari returned to the original sketches with the objective of reinvigorating this almost totally forgotten typeface. First, however, he needed to revise the drafts prepared by Team '77 to adapt them for digital typesetting. So Omagari carefully adjusted the proportions of the glyphs, achieving a more uniform overall effect across all line weights and removed details that had become redundant for contemporary typefaces. It was also apparent from the old drafts that it had been the case that the original plan was to create more than the four weights that were published. Omagari has added five additional styles, giving his Neue Haas Unica? a total of nine weights, from Ultra Light to Extra Black. He has also greatly extended the range of glyphs. Providing as it does typographic support for Central and European languages, Greek and Cyrillic texts, Neue Haas Unica is now ready to be used for major international projects. In addition, it has been supplied with small caps and various sets of numerals. With its resolute clarity and excellent typographic support, Neue Haas Unica is suitable for use in a wide range of new contexts. The light and elegant characters can be employed in the large point sizes to create, for example, titling and logos while the very bold styles come into their own where the typography needs to be powerful and expressive. The medium weights can be used anywhere, for setting block text and headlines.

Since the release of these fonts most typefaces in the Scangraphic Type Collection appear in two versions. One is designed specifically for headline typesetting (SH: Scangraphic Headline Types) and one specifically for text typesetting (SB Scangraphic Bodytypes). The most obvious differentiation can be found in the spacing. That of the Bodytypes is adjusted for readability. That of the Headline Types is decidedly more narrow in order to do justice to the requirements of headline typesetting. The kerning tables, as well, have been individualized for each of these type varieties. In addition to the adjustment of spacing, there are also adjustments in the design. For the Bodytypes, fine spaces were created which prevented the smear effect on acute angles in small typesizes. For a number of Bodytypes, hairlines and serifs were thickened or the whole typeface was adjusted to meet the optical requirements for setting type in small sizes. For the German lower-case diacritical marks, all Headline Types complements contain alternative integrated accents which allow the compact setting of lower-case headlines.

Award winning 2017 font from Demark (Thailand) and G-Mark (Japan) in Graphic Design, MartiniThai Neue Slab is now available with better taste. Deltatype created a better version of MartiniThai Neue Slab V2: refined for better outline, we fine-tuned all outlines for better letterforms. Proportion were adjusted for better consistent. Metrics got new values for increased readability. Kerning, fine-tuned kerning pair for better spacing between the letters. MartiniThai Neue Slab V2 comes in six weights: Thin, Light, Regular, Bold, Extra Bold, Black. Thai Language is included in this package. MartiniThai Neue Slab is a unique slab serif in Thai Script that creates a sense of timeless and contemporary feel and is used by a media provider and nationwide in Thailand.

The initial idea of timesquare typeface inspired by Helvetica when presenting the board information on a subway escalator in Time Square, Manhattan, New York. This confirms strength the legend of Helvetica is not lost amid rampant nice fonts in the site. Therefore it should not appropriate that this timesquare fonts come to rival the greatness of Helvetica. Fonts timesquare thrive (since 2008 for self used) of the basic forms of Helvetica to timesquare born in different shapes and sizes. The greatest challenge during development timesquare is both shape similarity to Helvetica directly, as well as to other fonts inspired by Helvetica. Timesquare's main characteristics are the wide character, modern touch and individually, can work well on a wide variety of applications in books, brochures and magazines as well as applications in advertising. This typeface has been developed on the Latin character sets. Hopefully useful.

George Ryan’s font of typographic ornaments and borders, available as a free download from Galápagos.

CHECK OUT Sánchez Niu (new, nova, neue, next) Sánchez, designed by Daniel Hernández, is a serif typeface belonging to the classification slab serif, or Egyptian, that bears a strong resemblance to the iconic Rockwell, but with rounded edges— offering contrast and balance to the square structure. Sánchez & Sánchez Condensed comprises 12 variants, ranging from extra light to black, each of the same x-height. Regular and Italic variants are available for free. Download specimen pdf

Strijkijzer is a funfont. It originated as a joke between friends. Do not take too seriously for it. But it is complete. Download it for free and swing your iron.

Folio was designed by Konrad F. Bauer and Walter Baum and appeared with the Bauer font foundry (Bauersche Gießerei) in 1957. The designers based their ideas on Helvetica but Folio did not turn out to pose the competition they had hoped. The font has the same applications as Helvetica and is an extremely legible font. Folio is particularly good for text and has an objective, neutral character.

This font was actually designed by trying to teach my helper-monkey, Philip, to cut Helvetica out of a piece of cardboard.

Wilton's "Benjamin-Regular" is a delightful twist on a classic - reminiscent of Franklin Gothic, Helvetica and Frutiger with it's own contemporary twist.

Squarish could have been the Universe or Helvetica of the 1980's, if only it was designed then. Now it is just a little quirky gridded typeface.

Univers and Helvetica Compressed are most often used for movie posters, but they lack variants. Therefore I made a compressed family with seven weights for more versatility.

Semi-Serif Roman and Italic for typefaces for setting legible children’s reading books. A gentle introduction for young readers to seriffed letterforms they will encounter. Free to download resources: How to access Stylistic Sets of alternative letters in these fonts

TD Beta is a bold and light sans serif typeface inspired by Futura and Helvetica. It is best used for headlines, titles, display, and even long paragraphs on digital collaterals.

Undercoat offers a gritty twist on a classic font style (Helvetica). It was completely hand painted which makes the font an organic centerpiece to any of your grungy design applications.

CG Triumvirate was designed for use on the Compugraphic phototypesetting system. The CG Triumvirate font family is very similar to Helvetica, and is an ideal font choice for text and display use.

Aura was designed by Jackson Burke for the Linotype foundry in 1960. Aura is a sans serif display font, very similar to Helvetica Inserat. Use the Aura font for headlines and posters.

Trapped home during the Coronavirus outburst of March 2020 the Zetafonts team found some solace from the world-wide anxiety by designing letters for the #36daysoftype challenge. To fight dark thoughts and spread some good karma we decided to add a free font twist, selecting the best glyphs drawn to develop a collection of ten free typefaces for download. We did our best to make this little gift to the community valuable, though developed in record time: although playful and excessive, these typefaces all stem from our current research in contemporary trends and historical design solutions, bridging calligraphy and design. The typefaces have been published daily starting Monday, March 30. You can download and use the typefaces in any way you desire, as they are totally free for commercial and non-commercial use. We are not asking anything back, but feel free to share the good karma and, if you want, please consider a donation for hospitals.

A next generation gothic with that clean legible corporate look, very simple yet very dignified. Great for text and head lines, just about any application. If you are tired of seeing Helvetica try Paladium Gothic.

Zepto is about as small as you can get with pixel fonts without sub-pixel rendering. Featured on Make: A tiny screen font you can actually download and use, free. For optimal use, please turn font anti-aliasing off and set at a size of 8px with image resolution set to 72ppi.

Roman Sehrer, a seasoned German advertising professional, digitized his handwriting to create this family of three fonts. Sehrer recommends this family for posters, logos, and restaurant menus. It works well with traditional sans serifs such as Helvetica or Univers.

Geoffrey Lee designed Impact font for the Stephenson Blake foundry in 1965. The sans serif display typeface is very heavy and condensed in the grotesque style, similar to Helvetica Inserat. Use Impact font in display situations requiring a strong statement.

Geoffrey Lee designed Impact font for the Stephenson Blake foundry in 1965. The sans serif display typeface is very heavy and condensed in the grotesque style, similar to Helvetica Inserat. Use Impact font in display situations requiring a strong statement.

Heldustry is a sans serif design with letterforms partway between Helvetica and Eurostile. The Heldustry font family has a large x-height and wide characters, making it ideal for situations where there is not much copy but pages must be filled.