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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?

#81

Post by reaperducer »

tomtimtall wrote: post #34
vinceguidry wrote: post #24

17/20. I've spent some time studying the differences and could just rocket through them without bothering to even look at the 'c's and 't's. The one that gave me the most pause was digital, and that was one of the ones I got wrong. When you separate the letters, Helvetica loses a lot. The other two I got wrong were also done without letter-by-letter examination. Helvetica just looks more 'solid' sitting there on the…

I know nothing about fonts. Got 18/20 just picking whichever felt older looking.

16/20 by trying to guess which one was more German/mathematical looking.

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

#82

Post by bootlooped »

lloeki wrote: post #26
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).

18/20, they're fairly easy to tell apart, except for MATTEL and TOYOTA which are quite subtle (and I got wrong precisely because I couldn't remember which is which). Both the capital and lowercase R are a dead giveaway.

Same. I wasn't sure what to look for with those particular capital letters.

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

#84

Post by ironicsans »

So, I think there’s something you should know. When I made this quiz I made a mistake. I keep meaning to go back and change the quiz to fix it but it’s been so long that it’s a low priority for me. So I’ll just tell you what it is: Turns out the “digital” logo is apparently not actually Helvetica. It’s not any font. It’s a logo that happens to look a lot like Helvetica, which was designed the same year, and has often been recreated in Helvetica. But there’s a very nerdy story about it’s creation and maintenance that is probably perfect HN material that more of you would appreciate if only I’d noticed this post sooner. But for those of you who are still here, the “digital” logo story can be found at: https://nedbatchelder.com/blog/200712/ancient_history_the_di...

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

#85

Post by jrumbut »

ramshorns wrote: post #71
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.

Did you not use the results you got along the way to learn which is which?

I didn't notice them (on my phone) until the last few, not excepting that tiny text to be anything important.

I also had no idea of the difference, but got most right by choosing the one that looked "wrong" to me, that one was usually helvetica. Someone above suggested the prevalence of arial makes it look more normal.

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

#86

Post by b_f »

lloeki wrote: post #26
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).

18/20, they're fairly easy to tell apart, except for MATTEL and TOYOTA which are quite subtle (and I got wrong precisely because I couldn't remember which is which). Both the capital and lowercase R are a dead giveaway.

Those are the two that stumped me, too

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

#87

Post by mcv »

lloeki wrote: post #26
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).

18/20, they're fairly easy to tell apart, except for MATTEL and TOYOTA which are quite subtle (and I got wrong precisely because I couldn't remember which is which). Both the capital and lowercase R are a dead giveaway.

TOYOTA was completely impossible to me. I had AGFA wrong because I'd forgotten which had which G. I got lucky on MATTEL. The others are easy once you know that Helvetica loves its horizontal lines.

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

#89

Post by slededit »

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.

Glyphs aren't copyrightable. Only the programs that draw them - but MSFT can write their own fonts.

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

#90

Post by 52-6F-62 »

jsjohnst wrote: post #70
52-6F-62 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh it's always in the lowercase a. Arial is missing that trademark grotesque tail. And perpendicular cuts on all C/c/S/s/e/G/g

The uppercase R is the most obvious one to me, which interestingly is the only one I prefer Arial over Helvetica. I sometimes like to screw with font nerds I know and make the R be Arial and the others Helvetica and see if they notice (they of course notice the R, but don’t always immediately realize the joke).

Haha— that's clever, but cruel.
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