matt.cc - Don't Use Arial

Don’t Use Arial

It might be obvious at this point that I’m not a fan of Arial. Or perhaps I’m not as transparent as I thought and it’s not so obvious. Either way, I feel like I’ve seen way too much Arial in my daily life. I can understand feeling like you have to use it when it comes to web design, but when it comes to print or motion graphics, it is absolutely ridiculous. That being said, here is a list of San-Serif typefaces that you should think about using before you even consider setting anything in Arial.

Helvetica
Univers
Akzidenz Grotesk
Gotham
Frutiger
Myriad
Eurostile
Futura
Meta
Avenir
Officina
Optima
Trade Gothic
Din
Agenda
Interstate
News Gothic
Gill Sans
Skia
Trebuchet
Blur
Whitney
Lucida Grande
Verdana
Bank Gothic
Euphemia
Fago

It may be a short list, but my point is, if you can avoid using Arial, please do. I would even say, when setting type on the web, try using font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;. The reason? Helvetica always looks better on a Mac. And Helvetica isn’t pre-installed on a PC. So if one decides to install Helvetica on a PC, one would assume they will use a browser that does a nice job of rendering type. The number of people that decide to install Helvetica on an operating system that doesn’t already have it installed and use a browser that poorly renders type must be about .00001%

Dec 07 2008 at 01:36:00 AM 35 Notes tags: Typography article personal