Helvetica TTF free downloads are available on several websites including http://helveticattf.com/ and http://www.free-fonts-ttf.org/true-type-fonts/legacy-16-high-quality-collections.htm?page=4. Why is this such a popular font and where did it come from?First, Helvetica is popular because it is extremely easy on the eyes. As for where it comes from, that is a bit harder to explain.In the late
. 19th century a print style called grotesque was very popular. Helvetica is a sans-serif form of this style that is classified as neo-grotesco. It was officially developed by developed in Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann in 1957. It is so popular that there are variants in all of the following languages: Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, Khmer and Vietnamese. It also has a symbolic variant in Chinese.Not sure what it looks like? Helvetica has been used in several high visibility areas since its development. This is only a very truncated list of companies and landmarks that use the font: 3M, American Airlines, American Apparel, BMW, Jeep, JCPenney, Kawasaki, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola, Panasonic, Philippine Airlines, Target, Verizon Wireless and Apple Inc. (especially prevalent in the iOS and on the iPhone and iPad). It is also used on American government documents including tax forms and the lettering on the NASA space shuttles. The famous "L" in Chicago also uses the Helvetica font on all of its signs. ABC, NBC and CBS have all taken their turns using the font for different broadcast events including NFL football and NCAA basketball.The neutral look of Helvetica takes the idea of text as a medium and puts it to the forefront. The font does nothing to distract a reader from the content of the text. It is simple, straight forward and easy to read. How important is this font in the scheme of print, well, from April 2007 to March 2008, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City hosted an exhibit called "50 Years of Helvetica." More reference links: http://helveticattf.com/ http://www.free-fonts-ttf.org/true-type-fonts/legacy-16-high-quality-collections.htm?page=4
