Myths About Helvetica and Mac OS X 10.5

Ralf Herrmann straightens out some of the confusion that has resulted for design professionals regarding Helvetica and Mac OS X 10.5. In previous versions of Mac OS X, you could disable or delete the system’s default Helvetica, and many design pros did so to use a PostScript version instead. In Leopard, though, Helvetica is a system font, meaning it isn’t easily disabled or removed and must be present for the system to function properly. I agree with Herrmann that the system’s default Helvetica is beautiful and suited to any purpose, even high-end printing. (Thanks to Joe Clark.)

★ Thursday, 31 January 2008