āhelvetica, arialā, Not āarial, helveticaā
Published on FebĀ 20, 2008 (updated JanĀ 31, 2025), filed under development (feed). (Share this on Mastodon orĀ Bluesky?)
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Unless you truly want Arial and not the better Helvetica font, use the order helvetica, arial
in your CSS font declarations, not the all-so-common arial, helvetica
. Why? Because Arial is only a typographically inferior copy of Helvetica, and Helvetica is common enough by now so that one can actually reference it: Helvetica is, indeed, one of the Mac OS system fonts.
Skipping the history of ArialāWikipedia explains and Mark Simonson colors itāI just like to share a brief analysis of a few decorator, designer, and typographer websites: When naming Arial within CSS font preferences first, almost everyone gives it precedence over the equally often listed Helvetica, even though that cannot be desired (and is pointless, because Arial would always be pulled instead).
Since there is and never was, thanks to CSSās font handling, a need to favor Arial, itās time to fix an almost historical mistake: Switch to helvetica, arial
. On systems with Helvetica installed youāll get the famous Swiss Grotesque type, and otherwise have a reliable fallback. This even works when your favorite font is yet another one, as in 'trebuchet ms', helvetica, arial, sans-serif
.
Update (February 22, 2008)
Your feedback suggested me to set up another test page. Please try and comment. My own tests on both Mac OS and Windows XP didnāt show any problems (font file on Windows, for what itās worth: āHelvetic.TTFā) except that with larger font sizes, occasionally, thereās a glitch with glyph presentation, even with ClearType activated.
However, when youāre in doubt about Helveticaās abilities, and when you then consider that Arial is pretty much available on every system (according to font stats), just refer to arial
. arial, sans-serif
, that is, without any reference to Helvetica. Helvetica doesnāt get applied when named after Arial.
About Me
Iām Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and Iām a web developer, manager, and author. Iāve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies youāve never heard of and companies you use every day, Iām an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for OāReilly 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.)