arial – Dave Kellam

Cure for the Common Webfont, Part 1: Alternatives to Arial (and Helvetica)

2010 is the Year of Webfonts. It seems a new webfont service is popping up every month, and many print typefaces are being reengineered for optimal rendering on multiple platforms and browsers. The days of relying on Arial, Georgia, Lucida, and Verdana are past. So now that a world of new options is opening up to web designers, let’s take at look alternatives to the old “web safes”, starting with the most common one of all.

So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica? Quiz

I’ve taken 20 logos that were originally designed in Helvetica, and I’ve redone them in Arial. Some people would call that blasphemy. I call it a challenge: can you tell which is the original and which is the remake?

Helvetica T-Shirt. I wonder if it’s supposed to be ironic

Helvetica T-Shirt. I wonder if it’s supposed to be ironic that it’s set in Arial.

Arial is everywhere

Sander Baumann documents the ubiquity of Arial in real-world practice. Most of his photos come from Amsterdam, the heart of a culture known from its design prowess.