I found the giveaway is in lowercase t, s, c and uppercase R. Helvetia tries to snap most terminating edges horizontally.
So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
101–110 of 184 posts
Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 f…
I don't think that analogy stands. You can tell there's something different between them, specially on a full page of text, without knowing what typeface it is at all. Helvetica is slightly more elegant. That said, it is no surprise that it's hard to tell the difference since one is a rip-off of the other.
Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
#103This is a question that's close to my heart. As a developer I've spent inordinate amounts of time getting Helvetica working properly in websites.
I can tell the difference between them, it's obvious when you know what to look for. Is it so much better that it's worth the effort required? Definitely not in my opinion.
I have a special place reserved in Hell for that font.
Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
#104I didn't initially know all the obvious differences, but I picked the one that looked "right" or "better" and still got 16/20.
After reading tip offs here I got 19/20 (all except Toyota)
Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
#105Ruining the game for everyone; two things I love about Helvetica — Terminals at right angles to the stroke. http://c.jon.gd/image/3Q0y2u323j3C . Arial looks particularly sloppy with jaunty terminals. It is possible to have a similar grotesque sans-serif feel with offset terminals (see Univers & Akzidenz Grotesk) but they're a crucial part of what give Helvetica its character. - The uppercase R. Has a really strong le…
I immediately got 17/20, missing only the ones where there were no lower case characters. How do you distinguish between in these 3 cases? http://imgur.com/a/NOLoI
In Toyota, the O is the most round one. The R in North Face is the easiest tell there. In Mattel, you can see that the E has more balance with the rest of the letters.
Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
This misled me on the Mattel example. Could this have been a mistake be the quiz designers?
Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
#107No typographer nor designer here either, but _subjectively_ speaking:
* This test quickly 'clued me in' that a logo should give a "commanding", "authoritative", "brooks no argument" look. Helvetica, yes; Ariel, no: Ariel made some logos look downright self-satirical.
* An email client I use has Ariel as its default font. In that (two-way communication) context, where accidental antagonisms can arise, Ariel seems to "look less antagonistic"
* So this test speaks to me about appropriate fonts for two different contexts, and personal point-of-view.
* Got 20/20, but might not on a 2nd run. I'm only human.
Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Helvetica is actually slightly thinner in the Mattel example.
This misled me on the Mattel example. Could this have been a mistake be the quiz designers?
For Mattel I looked at the space between the T and the E. One of them was really close and didn't look as nice, so I chose the other.
Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
#109Thank you, now you have ruined Arial for me.
Before this test I considered the differences negligible, without really knowing what the differences are. Now I consider Helvetica much more elegant and incisive.
Re: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
#110Got 19 out of 20. I missed the Panasonic one.
What I like most about Helvetica is the top of the t is flat rather than sharp and there is less stylizing overall. Arial, for me, breaks the philosophy of stylizing for stylizing sake. Helvetica, IMHO, was already perfect.
This makes me remember the Essay by Adolf Loos' Ornament and Crime (1929) (http://technical-english.wikidot.com/text-1-2). Albeit bordering on racist propaganda contains very valid points on ornamentation being wasteful which I believe was a hallmark of Dieter Rams philosophy, "Good design is as little design as possible" which highly influences Apple's industrial designer Jonathan Ive.