Re: Helvetica font

Janet:

Helvetica is a Type 1 Postscript font from Adobe. It is
copyrighted but available with most Adobe products, Postscript
printers, etc. There are several sites that offer fonts for
downloading but I would be wary of anyone offering Postscript
fonts for free, UNLESS they come as part of a software package
where the royalty has been paid. Almost every Mac will have them
too.

Unlike True Type, these fonts have two files that need to be
downloaded and used to insure that what you see on the screen
will be the same as what ends up in print or on a web site.

In the meantime, if you are using a Windows machine, for all
PRACTICAL purposes, "Arial" is the same thing. There is an old
Bitstream font called "Swiss" that is also nearly identical. Many
of the six jillion on a CD packages include "Futuri" and several
others which are not identical but fairly close. (Some of the
widths and the italics are a little "off")

If you substitute, watch for things like using separate fonts for
italics as many lower case letters are different between narrow,
normal, bold and italics. There is a difference between clicking
on the Italics icon and actually switching to an italic font. For
example:

To better match someone's choice of a font in a logo, and in a
powerful program like Canvas, (Quark Express, PageMaker, etc.),
you can some times switch fonts for one individual letter, and
thus match the lower case letter and simply change the slant. You
can also play with the outline width of a letter to better match
some "bold" lettering. And of course there is always kerning and
character width.

I realize this is far afield of your question and probably a lot
more than you cared to know about font manipulation, but I hope
it helps somewhat.

Best Wishes:
Ted Temer
Temercraft Designs Redding, CA
temer(at)c-zone.net
http://www.temercraft.com
http://www.newsredding.com/




>Hi all.
>
>I'm trying to match a font.  I think it might be helvetica but
surprisingly
>this isn't in my computer.  Does anyone know where I can
download helvetica
>or know of any really comprehensive font sites?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Janet
>

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