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So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

ironicsans.com

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

#51

Post by simongr3dal »

alexvoda wrote: post #47
onion2k wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I scored the same, for the same reason. What I find interesting is that the Helvetica logos are a lot nicer in my opinion even though the difference is subtle. Having things parallel to the baseline improves the look dramatically over the angled bits in Arial.

Same score. I also applied the same heuristic. I wonder what I should have looked for in the MATTEL one.

It's very subtle and more pronounced in the other logos shown, but the horizontal line in the "A" is closer to the baseline in Helvetica than in Arial.

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

#52

Post by The_suffocated »

lucb1e wrote: post #20
The_suffocated wrote: post #14

Got 3/20. I didn't know the characteristics of Arial or Helvetica beforehand. The results show that I can easily tell the two fonts apart, although I don't know which is which.

3 wrong? If so, same here. I also didn't know the characteristics so at the first logo I noted the differences and tried to remember what I noticed about Arial in the past, guessed correctly, and was able to find common letters in most subsequent ones (and learn new letters). I kept messing up the capital A, otherwise I would have gotten only one mistake.

No, not 3 wrong, but only 3 right. I was effectively doing a blinded test. Since I didn't know what are the real differences between the two fonts, all I could do --- as another user has commented --- was to make consistent choices throughout the whole test. Actually I think a blinded test is slightly more meaningful, because the test hypothesis looks simpler.

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

#54

Post by jschulenklopper »

simongr3dal wrote: post #43
jschulenklopper wrote: post #23

19/20, fooled by Mattel (and guessed lucky on the other all caps texts). My heuristic was to look at the a, c, e, g, and s, if present in lowercase: are the ends of those characters horizontal (Helvetica) or at an angle (Arial).

1/20 I guess I was able to tell them apart too?

Ha, in all but one (Mattel?) you pointed to Arial as being Helvetica. Just invert your heuristic! :-)

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

#55

Post by mattkevan »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #46
mattkevan wrote: post #19

20/20. They're fairly easy to differentiate. The curved ends (finials) of e, c, C, r, S, s are generally horizontal in Helvetica and at an angle in Arial. The tail of the uppercase R and ascender of the lowercase t are the biggest giveaways. Funny how they are so similar, but Arial is pretty tacky in comparison...

The only ones where it was difficult to tell the difference were MATTEL and TOYOTA.

Yeah, Mattel was tough.

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

#56

Post by tinus_hn »

The_suffocated wrote: post #52
lucb1e wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3 wrong? If so, same here. I also didn't know the characteristics so at the first logo I noted the differences and tried to remember what I noticed about Arial in the past, guessed correctly, and was able to find common letters in most subsequent ones (and learn new letters). I kept messing up the capital A, otherwise I would have gotten only one mistake.

No, not 3 wrong, but only 3 right. I was effectively doing a blinded test. Since I didn't know what are the real differences between the two fonts, all I could do --- as another user has commented --- was to make consistent choices throughout the whole test. Actually I think a blinded test is slightly more meaningful, because the test hypothesis looks simpler.

Most normal users see much more Arial text than Helvetica so it looks more normal to them.

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

#57

Post by throwaway2048 »

M_Bakhtiari wrote: post #21
pasta wrote: post #9

Arial: "It was created to be metrically identical to the popular typeface Helvetica, with all character widths identical, so that a document designed in Helvetica could be displayed and printed correctly without having to pay for a Helvetica license." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arial

I wonder why they had to make it gratuitously different on top of it. What the hell were they smoking when they made the t and G?

the stupid slanted end bits on letters like c s and r are also really crap.

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

#58

Post by falcolas »

jschulenklopper wrote: post #23

19/20, fooled by Mattel (and guessed lucky on the other all caps texts). My heuristic was to look at the a, c, e, g, and s, if present in lowercase: are the ends of those characters horizontal (Helvetica) or at an angle (Arial).

The tell for Mattel is the Arial 'E' has a shorter middle bar, whereas Helvetica has all equal length bars.

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

#60

Post by salasrod »

tomcooks wrote: post #28
M_Bakhtiari wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why they had to make it gratuitously different on top of it. What the hell were they smoking when they made the t and G?

They were smoking possible lawsuits from Haas Type Foundry or whomever was the legit owner Helvetica at the time.

Monotype is the owner right now.
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