Commercial · Sans serif · Linotype
Helvetica
Helvetica is a licensed font from Linotype: Complete family of 30 fonts: $460.99 USD, as printed on the foundry or reseller’s page on 2026-09-05. The 4 open-licence families below are suggested in its place, each with the basis for the substitution.
The name above is set in a fallback face. Helvetica is a licensed font and there is no file here to show it in; the foundry’s page has the real specimen.
- Designer
- Max Miedinger, Linotype Design Studio
- Released
- 1957
- Styles
- 36
- Classification
- Sans serif
- Price
- Complete family of 30 fonts: $460.99 USD (Individual Styles from $39.00 USD) — as printed, read 2026-09-05
The Swiss neo-grotesque first released as Neue Haas Grotesk in 1957 under Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas foundry and renamed Helvetica by Linotype in 1960. MyFonts lists 36 styles in this family.
Free alternatives to Helvetica
Suggested, not measured
Typecase measures fonts from their outlines. Helvetica is not on this machine, so these were chosen by what is known about it — classification, lineage, common use — and each is labelled with that basis. Open one to see its measured character and neighbours.
Quiet luxury, approachable
The Inter webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Inter.
commonly substituted
A screen-first neo-grotesque with a tall x-height; the usual free stand-in for Helvetica in interface work, though its shapes are plainer and its spacing looser.
Quiet luxury, approachable
The Roboto webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Roboto.
commonly substituted
Neo-grotesque skeleton with open, slightly geometric curves; widely used in place of Helvetica on Android and the web, but warmer and less uniform in rhythm.
Quiet luxury, approachable
The Work Sans webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Work Sans.
same classification
Based loosely on early grotesques; matches the closed-aperture grotesque feel at text sizes, with more quirks in the extreme weights.
Quiet luxury, approachable
The Archivo webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Archivo.
same classification
A grotesque family reminiscent of late-nineteenth-century American types; similar neutrality, slightly wider and squarer.
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