Ok, so that’s a little extreme. I’m going to preface this post a little bit. I love Helvetica as a font. It’s a gorgeous font, and it has stood the test of time. So now that everyone understands my opinion on the font, I’ll go back to my original post…
Why do designers decide to use Helvetica for their site’s body copy? It looks AWFUL at small sizes.
The sizes that I think have the most problems are 12px and lower. Unfortunately, I have seen sites that use body copy as small as 10px. It’s pretty sad that when I get to a site that uses a small size of Helvetica as the body copy, I change the body font-family to Verdana using Firebug.
I made an example page to show the various Helvetica sizes from 10px – 20px.
Helvetica on Windows
Helvetica on the Mac
In Conclusion
So I guess this is more of a call to action than a post. So web designers, Stop Using Helvetica at such small sizes!
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9 Comments
Mr. Tanker
09.07.2007Dir sir or madame,
We have stopped using helvetica for the most part at Northwestern. Just wanted to share. A friend and I are going to set up a website and don’t know how. Please help. haha.
Big balloon guy
04.10.2008What is the best alternative to Helvetica that looks like it?
VKNT
04.12.2008Arial is the substitute for Helvetica. It has the same proportions and the same weight. At the low resolution of the screen, it’s hard to see the difference.
To professional designers, Arial is looked down on as a not-very-faithful imitation of Helvetica. But that’s another story ;)
Trevor
04.12.2008@VKNT-
Yep, I was getting ready to post the same thing. There are quizzes out there to see if people can tell the difference.
Valery
04.22.2008Hi
dooblet.com that finds alternatives to very different things, rates only arial against helvetica:
***** arial
** helvetica neue
http://dooblet.com/a/en
have a nice day.
Helen Johnson
04.24.2009I have no idea why so many web designers these days thinks that using Helvetica for the body copy is even remotely nice-looking. My eyes hurt trying to read it. I’m glad someone else agrees with me!
Thorne
09.17.2009Helvetica and Arial are designed for headlines, not body copy.
Go to a bookstore and look for a book set in Arial or Helvetica. You won’t find such a book because professional publishers know type.
mary
02.10.2010@Thorne,
what a shame, I really like Arial in body copy. I’m not sure why exactly but I just love reading long blogs/papers in it.
——-
Couchart
02.10.2011It looks like you’re using Helvetica size 13px. I don’t like the look of Helvetica at any size for the web, to me it’s a print-font.
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