Helvetica

Helvetica is a Neo-grotesque sans serif typeface that was designed by Max Miedinger in 1957. It was based off Akzidenz Grotesk, designed in 1896 (which influenced this font and also Univers and Folio .). It was first called Neue Haas Grotesk, but it was changed to Helvetica in 1960. From the 60's on, it was popular, and the leading choice for companies everywhere. It was adopted by Linotype in the 50's and redesigned into a larger family.

Characteristics:
A,M,N,V,W,Z,j,t,v,w,z: Flat tops over these letters..

C,G,J,S,a,c,e,j,r,s,t: Straight terminals and vertical and horizontal measurements.

G: Spur in the glyph.

Q: Straight tail through the circle.

R: Curved tail of the glyph.

a: Tail of the glyph (exclusively for light and regular versions)

i: Square dot over the i.

1,2,7: Curved heads, bodies, and stems of the numerals.

Language variants
There were lots of language variants designed in many languages.

Compressed
Compressed version of the font, but with the curved tail of the Q, downward-pointing curve of the r, and tilde Pound sign.

Textbook
A young-age-appropriate version of Helvetica, with changes in the letters:

Sometimes, the G's spur is missing.

The I and J gain serifs.

The a is single story, made from the d/g/q.

The f's terminal is pointing downward.

The j's tail is pointing upward.

The q has a diagonal-pointing hook tail.

The t's vertical stem is straight.

The u is shaped like its capital counterpart.

Sometimes, the y's tail is pointing downward.

The 1 is shaped like a capital i or lowercase L.

The 4 is open-countered.

The tail of the 6 and 9 are straight.

Inserrat version (1957)
The inserrat version was designed in 1957. It is similar to Impact and New Deal.

Rounded (1978)
Rounded versions were created in 1978. They were rounded bold, black and bold and black condensed versions. No light or regular weight was created.

Neue Helvetica (1983)
see Helvetica Neue .

Narrow
Narrow variant was a narrow version. Its width is in between Compressed and Condensed.

W1G (2009)
The W1G version was designed in 2009.

World (2010)
The world variant was designed in 2010. It enables all support in the world transcriptions.

Helvetica Thai (2012)
Thai versions were created in 2012.

Usage
It was used by many companies, such as the New York Subway, Target corp., American airlines, American apparel, Kawasaki, Etc.

Related fonts:
Arial

Nimbus Sans

Franklin Gothic

Univers

Folio

Dotum

Microsoft sans serif

Rail alphabet

Coolvetica