Arial, Helvetica

Published on Feb 12, 2009 (updated Jan 31, 2025), filed under development, css (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)

This and many other posts are also available as a pretty, well-behaved ebook: On Web Development.

An extension of my post on Arial and Helvetica: For those who want or have to use Arial as their standard font, there is no point in mentioning Helvetica anywhere in the code, as in arial, helvetica, sans-serif.

Arial is so popular that Helvetica’s almost never used. There isn’t a single test case to indicate otherwise. arial, sans-serif is enough. No need for ten additional characters. There never has been, when Arial came first in a font list.

As many people know, Arial is not only available on almost any Windows system, it ships with Mac OS since at least 10.3, if not 10.0, and it ships with several Linux distributions, too, at least do numbers suggest so. In that respect Arial, the “scourge,” has won, years ago. We gotta give it that, in our font declarations.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)