It may be one of the best known and most used fonts around but where is it when you need it? There are many flavors of Helvetica as well as fonts that look like Helvetica but aren't. Several of the major type foundries carry various versions of Helvetica as described below.
A. The Helvetica TrademarkHelvetica is a registered trademark of Linotype-Hell AG and/or its subsidiaries. (From the Linotype site: "Helvetica is a Trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions, exclusively licensed through Linotype Library GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.")
The Original Helvetica
Helvetica was first designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger. The name is derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland. New weights were added by the Stempel foundry. Later, Merganthaler Linotype added new versions.
The Many Helvetica Versions
See How many Helvetica versions are there? What do the Neue Helvetica numbers mean? for a close to complete listing of Helvetica names and versions.
Who Sells Helvetica
Linotype, naturally, sells Helvetica including the complete Neue Helvetica collection. Explore the Linotype Library of Fonts to find the one you need.
AGFA Monotype also carries many versions of Helvetica. You can purchase individual fonts or volumes containing several weights. Note that they drop the Neue from the Helvetica name but use the numbering.
Adobe, Inc. lists several forms of Helvetica and Helvetica Neue in the Adobe Type Library. Note that they drop the numbers from the Neue fonts. They are available as families or within various CD collections such as Type Basics. All the Adobe Helvetica fonts are available in OpenType and PostScript Type 1 format.
Fonts That Look Like Helvetica, But Aren't
Here's a free download of Coolvetica by Ray Larabie. It's almost like Helvetica but with a few surprises.
Some of the fonts that look like Helvetica or are very similiar are Arial, Aristocrat, CG Tiumvirate, Claro, Corvus, Europa Grotesk, Geneva 2, Hamilton, Helio/II, Helv, Helvette, Holsatia, Megaron/II, Nimbus Sans URW, Spectra, Vega, Newton, Sans URW, Sonoran Sans Serif, Swiss, Swiss 721 BT, Switzerland, Swiss 911 BT (Helvetica Compressed), Impact and Placard Bold and Swiss 921 BT (Helvetica Inserat/Compressed), Arial Narrow (Helvetica Narrow). There are probably many others.
