But a proper Medium has the opposite problem. In addition to having much looser spacing, Schwartz says, "Neue Haas Grotesk text has a significantly different weight range from the headline version, as a proper Regular for display looks too light as text. Neue Haas Grotesk, the original name for Helvetica, was initially produced for typesetting by hand in a range of sizes from 5 to 72 points, but Schwartz notes, "the digital Helvetica has always been one-size-fits-all, which leads to unfortunate compromises." "The biggest difference," Schwartz explains, "is that I made separate versions for text and display, which allowed each to do what they need to do in order to work best at their respective sizes without becoming clogged and spotty in texture at text sizes, or overly loose at larger sizes." For the non-type person who may be reading this, this is not the equivalent of angels on the head of a pin. So why is this Helvetica different from any other?
Originally made for The Guardian in London, as part of its 2005 redesign, it was rejected but found new life in the redesign of Bloomberg Businessweek last year. Christian Schwartz, a partner in the type foundry Commercial Type, is steadfastly an Helveticaphile and on June 7 his restoration of the original Helvetica, "Neue Haas Grotesque," will be released by Monotype Imaging. One cannot be neutral about this neutral typeface.
In which camp are you? Those who cannot get enough Helvetica, the world's most famous sans serif font, or those who have had more than enough.
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