Arial vs. Helvetica: The Smackdown
This is a bit of a departure but what is a blog if not a dumping ground for random thoughts?
This isn't really the point of this post but I've never liked Arial. It's too "squished" for my tastes. I prefer the wider letters of Verdana or Tahoma. But my current favorite font is Century Gothic with it's big round letters that harken back to when I first learned how to print.
I was reading over Jeff Atwoods latest post which discusses, in part, the Helvetica font. I following the links to its relationship with Arial and finally, How to Spot Arial.
I've never considered the difference 'twixt Helvetica and Arial before so I did a little experiment in Microsoft Word 2003 and Windows XP. The results are in the image below (click for larger version):
Here's your quiz. Comparing with the notes in How to Spot Arial, which block of text above is Arial and which is Helvetica?
And once you answer that question, here's a follow-up: What gives?
Kyle the Rhetorical