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So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

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Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

#71

Post by threedaymonk »

anonymouz wrote: post #22
ef4 wrote: post #4

I really don't consider myself a typography expert or designer, but I found that easy and got a perfect score. There are obvious tells in almost all of them -- mostly lowercase "s", "c", etc, in which Helvetica is has perfectly level edges and arial is angled. The only harder ones are some of the all caps examples like TOYOTA.

Also Helvetice tends to look sligthly "heavier" (thicker) when put side by side with Arial. That gives away many examples at a glance.

The Helvetica is actually slightly thinner in the Mattel example.

Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

#72

Post by 67726e »

ef4 wrote: post #4

I really don't consider myself a typography expert or designer, but I found that easy and got a perfect score. There are obvious tells in almost all of them -- mostly lowercase "s", "c", etc, in which Helvetica is has perfectly level edges and arial is angled. The only harder ones are some of the all caps examples like TOYOTA.

In the cases with capital A's, you can tell by the spacing between the two "legs" of the `A`. Helvetica is more compact. The space inside `O` is more compact for Helvetica as well.

Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

#73

Post by cliffbean »

visarga wrote: post #49
calinet6 wrote: post #19

Yes, the differences are easy to see, as everyone has said. But the important part is that there's a difference in feel and theme that's not really measurable and identifiable in direct comparison. The subtle difference is far more important than trying to identify the tiny details that don't really matter. And in that sense, this game (while fun and interesting) misses the point.

I don't feel this subtle difference. Take a look: http://imgur.com/CWJWvZk Does this feel different? I can see the slanted Arial terminations but I don't "feel" the different mood.

Hypothesis: The difference in feeling that some people get from fonts is like the difference in feeling many people get when they pay a lot for the wine they drink. It's subconscious. It feels like a real feeling. It just isn't driven by the actual experience of the product.

In the wine world, it is possible to isolate this effect using blind taste tests. In the font world, there seems to be no robust way to show a font expert Helvetica without letting them recognize that it's Helvetica.

Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

#74

Post by wildmXranat »

ef4 wrote: post #4

I really don't consider myself a typography expert or designer, but I found that easy and got a perfect score. There are obvious tells in almost all of them -- mostly lowercase "s", "c", etc, in which Helvetica is has perfectly level edges and arial is angled. The only harder ones are some of the all caps examples like TOYOTA.

Indeed. This was the first time I really compared the two and using this method got me 17/20

Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

#77

Post by rquantz »

jongold wrote: post #69
calinet6 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but why would you use one over the other?

Because it gives the text a different character on a macro level.

I believe that is what he's trying to say. You don't use Arial because it terminates at right angles, you use it because it feels different.

Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

#79

Post by ruswick »

I only missed one, which was do to negligence and not ignorance. Moreover, I'm not even cursorily trained in design or typography.

This doesn't seem that hard. Any perceptive person can determine the differences immediately through deduction and use them to differentiate throughout the test.

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