Arial vs. Helvetica

Posted on by Judy Unrein

Small part of a visual comparison by Raynor

Small piece of a visual comparison by Raynor

Even though instructional design is not synonymous with graphic design (contrary to some employers’ beliefs), graphic design is obviously a pretty big part of what we do. Even those among us who have the luxury of not doing our own graphic design have to judge and vet others’ work. So it seems like it behooves us to at least talk the talk and spot differences in design and type, to what effect on the overall product.

I’m working on my graphic design and typography chops informally for the time being, which is why I’m grateful for bloggers, among them John Gruber at Daring Fireball, who recently posted:

So You Think You Can Tell Arial From Helvetica? Quiz

and Arial Versus Helvetica

Extra credit: Not new, but very interesting… Helvetica (the documentary). Enjoy!

  • http://www.janiepeterson.com Janie

    I don’t see many people talking about font comparisons. I’ve always found the subject to be interesting, since my sister is a graphic designer and has taught me a little about the industry. I like Arial better, because it is a more rounded font. It just seems more friendly. When I post on message boards that offer a choice between these two, I always go for Arial.
    Great post!

  • Judy Unrein

    Thanks, Janie! Yeah, I don’t think IDs (or anyone outside of graphic designers and typographers) tend to get very analytical about type, but it can be very useful to show your chops by knowing some of the more nit-picky stuff, and I just find it interesting. Helvetica is my personal preference because I think it’s more elegant, but… different strokes! (haha)

  • http://www.MegganMills.com Meggan Mills

    I prefer Arial myself… basically just because I’ve used it the most AND it’s at the top of the font list… LOL

  • http://www.e-learninguncovered.com Diane Elkins

    I’m still a big verdana fan. It was commissioned by Microsoft for maximum on-screen readability. Plus, it looks bigger than most other fonts. So a 9-point verdana looks as big as 11 point times new roman. (I could explain why that is, but I’d bore you all to tears! I knew that semester of typography in college would come in handy some day!) And with “real estate” a premium in e-learning courses, being able to use a smaller font is an advantage.

  • Judy Unrein

    Diane, I would love the explanation someday! Let’s find a time to crack open bottles of Pinot and get on the phone. :) I am actually thinking about taking a type class soon… it’s becoming sort of a side interest.

    I always thought Verdana just *was* bigger… I am looking at 2 identical paragraphs of lorem ipsum text in Word, both 9-point, and the Times New Roman paragraph is 8 lines while the Verdana one is just over 10 lines. I have to crank the Verdana paragraph down to 7-point to make it fit in roughly the same space. So I must not be getting your meaning…

    Of course, Verdana text is much more readable at 7 than TNR is at 9… not surprising when you compare a serif font to a sans-serif one. I do agree that it’s a very readable font… and a friendly one.

  • Judy Unrein

    Speaking of Verdana, it has made some big strides recently… apparently it’s Ikea’s new standard font. The quotes in this article aren’t terribly complimentary, but some of them do explain Verdana’s benefits onscreen.