If you want to toy around with the fruits of all that labor for yourself, you have two main options as an ordinary user: One, you can get a free, downloadable version of Helvetica Now Display Black by handing over some basic information to Monotype (such as your name, job title, and email address).Īlternatively, you can visit Monotype's Helvetica Now reveal page and interact with the font directly - the page is essentially a giant text sandbox that you can edit to your heart's content. Monotype says Helvetica Now is the result of roughly five years of research and collaborative development among "dozens" of designers and engineers within the Monotype Studio Foundry. If you thought designing new versions of existing fonts was a simple process, think again. This desktop-only font is yours to keep and use. The spacing is smartly tight, and its forms, while classically Helvetica, are refined and graceful. Helvetica Now Display internalizes the adaptations designers have long made to Helvetica when using it at large sizes.
Micro, as the name suggests, is useful in the same areas as Text, but on smaller screens. Fill out the form to download Helvetica Now Display Black weight for free. Helvetica Now Text is meant for just about anything else - articles, FAQ pages, forums, you name it. Monotype's solution with Helvetica Now is to provide editors, writers, and brands with three main font size variants: Helvetica Now Micro, Text, and Display.ĭisplay is intended for headlines, advertisements, and other areas where bigger, more "in-your-face" text is ideal. I'm no font history expert myself, but Gizmodo claims that previous versions of Helvetica had issues with kerning (letter spacing) and legibility on smaller screens, problems that have become all the more pronounced now with the rise of consumer smartphones and tablets. While those are some pretty bold claims, Helvetica Now does aim to solve some of the problems its predecessor faced in the modern world. Now, the font is called "Helvetica Now," a name Monotype (the company responsible for licensing it) hopes will act as a "new chapter" in the story of the "best-known typeface" of all time. Indeed, as Gizmodo points out, the last time the font was upgraded was back in 1983 with the "Neue Helvetica" update.
One of the most popular fonts in the world, Helvetica, is getting its first major overhaul in several decades. Hello everyone Im doing a job using Helvetica Neue for a client who has specified that it should be from the Monotype foundry.