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by madisfun
2620 days ago
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Google's Roboto is a very close drop-in replacement for Helvetica. Almost the same metrics, slightly more "condensed"/DIN feel. You may also consider FreeSans (GNU replacement for Helvetica) and Liberation Sans (which is a metric replacement for Arial, which is an alternative for Helvetica...) Also, what's wrong with Open Sans? |
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Most Linux systems come with the Nimbus fonts as part of the printer drivers, and Nimbus Sans is very close, but apparently (AFAIK) only has a limited character set unless you pay for the full version. GNU FreeFont is practically the same as Helvetica and Nimbus but gives you a much larger character set for free.
Liberation is not quite as geometric as Helvetica/FreeFont/Nimbus.
Here's a comparison of a few fonts (the first is San Francisco by Apple).
https://i.imgur.com/SwxydqB.png
The 'r' and 't' in Liberation look quite a bit different than the first three, which are basically Helevetica clones. The ring in the 'b' also has a weird lower-left side. It's like 20% of the way to being a Serif font.
I haven't used MS fonts in a while but DejaVu reminds me very much of Arial, and to me it looks a lot worse. Especially the way the 'S' looks is quite awkward.