Submitted by Henk Gianotten, Sep 12, 2007 20:27

Lots of designers use Helvetica. There is, however, another reason why Helvetica is the most used typeface and recently awarded as the "best typeface ever". Software maker Adobe uses Helvetica since the first Apple Laserwriter was introduced in 1985. Helvetica is also part of the standard set of typefaces in Acrobat.
IBM introduced their AFP printing language with a standard set of typefaces. It's not a surprise that Helvetica was one of them. The competitors of IBM were forced to use the same typefaces or clones of the Helvetica. Talking about clones: on your PC you most probably have the Arial. It's the ultimate Helvetica clone! Made by Monotype for Microsoft. Recently Monotype took over the owner of the Helvetica fonts and trademarks Linotype. So the originals and the clones are in the hands of one American company: Monotype.

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