The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Neue Montreal vs Elza
Two commercial neo-grotesques that both trace their lineage to Helvetica, released three years apart by small independent foundries. Neue Montreal (Mathieu Desjardins, Pangram Pangram, 2018) is a display-leaning grotesque with tight spacing and a Montreal design-scene pedigree, while Elza (Daniel Sabino, Blackletra, 2021) is a deliberately plain, system-sized neo-grotesque built around widths and optical sizes.
Neue Montreal is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Switzer, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Neue Montreal → Elza is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Archivo, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Elza →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- Neue Montreal is tuned for display: Pangram Pangram describes it as Helvetica-inspired with tighter spacing, and a separate Text cut was added for smaller sizes.
- Elza is a larger system, with three widths (normal, Narrow, Condensed), two optical sizes (Elza and Elza Text) and 58 styles in total, so it stretches further across signage, editorial and UI work.
- Elza ships obliques rather than true italics and its variable font carries weight, width and slant axes; Neue Montreal has drawn italics and a variable cut of its own.
- Blackletra built tiny straight segments into Elza's round letters so the normal and condensed widths stay consistent, and says the design has 'not even a humanistic touch'.
- Both are paid fonts: Pangram Pangram offers free trial versions of Neue Montreal but requires a commercial license, and Elza is sold per style or as a family, with pricing scaled to company size.
Neue Montreal
Reach for Neue Montreal when you want a tight, confident grotesque for headlines, branding and portfolio sites that reads as contemporary rather than strictly neutral.
Elza
Reach for Elza when you need one quiet neo-grotesque family to cover everything from condensed display to text, and width flexibility matters more than personality.