Helvetica Now Micro has all of those tweaks that make it work really well in tiny sizes and in challenging environments (low-resolution, low light, at a distance)-larger x-height, generous spacing, lower contrast, and a host of micro-modifications. The complete design has three different sets of master drawings: Micro, Text, and Display. That is why when my colleagues in the Monotype Studio and I set out to develop Helvetica Now, a new chapter for an iconic typeface, we knew it had to have “optical sizes”-size-specific designs. Makeup for the stage is very different from makeup for a magazine cover. And why were we cutting apart photo-type and respacing it for use in display? Because at larger sizes, the details are incredibly important-and balancing the space between the interior and exterior of the form becomes a sort of critical typographic art. It needs to convey the impression of Helvetica while coming to grips with the limitations of its small scale. What does Helvetica need at 6-point and 8-point (and 4, 5, and 7)? It needs space. When we set large Helvetica, we cut it apart letter by letter and spaced it with extreme care. She knew what 8-point Helvetica needed to sing (and in the 1980s, we set a lot of 8-point Helvetica-and 6-point and 10-point). Marina Kyprianou had an amazing feel for type. Prior to that, I had been getting my type from a typesetter-a very good typesetter-my favorite typesetter. It was missing something-or I was missing something. I also wasn’t particularly excited about the PostScript version. I needed to explore the larger typographic world. For nearly three decades, I largely avoided using the world’s most famous typeface.
And when I started using a Mac in the 80s, I encountered it one more time in PostScript as Neue Helvetica-the form that is most familiar to designers.Īfter college, it faded from my professional orbit.
While in college, I met it a third, fourth, and fifth time as photo-type, photo-digital type, and (Linotron) digital type.
In grade school, I met it again as my parents’ transfer lettering. As a little boy, it was a slug of metal type that my father set. Helvetica has been a regular presence in my life. In this article for BookMachine, Charles Nix, a Creative Type Director at Monotype, gives insights into the origin and development of Helvetica Now: a new chapter in the story of perhaps the best-known typeface of all time.
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