You’ve probably used Helvetica or have seen the font at some point. Now after 35 years, Helvetica has been redesigned.
Monotype, the world's largest type foundry located in Woburn, Mass., introduced Helvetica Now today. The new typeface consists of 48 fonts and three optical sizes for the modern era. Every character in the font—adding up to 40,000— has been carefully and respectfully re-drawn by the Monotype Studio for improved legibility and performance.
Helvetica was never intended to be used in today’s application, thus being an issue for companies who used the font for branding. This redesign supposedly fixes those problems while still being a clean, versatile and timeless design.
“Helvetica Now is the tummy tuck, facelift and lip filler we’ve been wanting, but were too afraid to ask for,” Abbott Miller, partner at Pentagram, said in the press release. “It offers beautifully drawn alternates to some of Helvetica’s most awkward moments, giving it a surprisingly, thrillingly contemporary character.”
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The new family of fonts is available in three optical sizes—micro, text, and display.
Already, users are sharing thoughts on the new font.
"I’m having fun with Helvetica Now," David Heasty, Triboro partner, said in the press release. "Bringing in alternate characters like the round ‘I’ dots and the straight-legged ‘R’ will likely annoy Helvetica purists, but I can totally get behind the flexibility and character this adds. I think the Micro cut goes a long way in making any Helvetica usable for longer texts. I wish I had Helvetica Now sooner!”
The typeface can be licensed through MyFonts.com at an introductory promotion of 50 percent off through May 24, 2019.
