The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Helvetica vs Inter
The 1957 Swiss neo-grotesque that defined corporate neutrality, against the open-source sans-serif built for pixels. Both are tall-x-height grotesques with horizontal terminals and a deliberately plain voice, but Helvetica is a Monotype-licensed print classic adapted to screens after the fact, while Inter was drawn for computer screens from the start and ships free under the SIL Open Font License.
Helvetica is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Inter, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Helvetica →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- Helvetica was designed by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas foundry in 1957 as Neue Haas Grotesk, built on Akzidenz-Grotesk; Inter is a recent design by Rasmus Andersson aimed at interfaces and closer in spirit to Roboto.
- Inter's text optical size uses ink traps and other contrast-enhancing details for small sizes, where Helvetica's tight apertures and close spacing can clog at UI scale unless you buy the Micro cuts of Helvetica Now.
- Inter is a free variable font from Thin to Black with text and display optical sizes and a true italic; Helvetica's classic cuts use an oblique, and its variable version only arrived with Helvetica Now in 2021.
- Inter ships UI conveniences like tabular numbers, a slashed zero, and stylistic sets for disambiguating I, l, and 1; Helvetica is the font those ambiguities are usually complained about in.
- Helvetica is commercial, licensed through Monotype, so every web, app, and desktop use carries a licensing cost; Inter can be bundled with products at no charge.
Helvetica
Reach for Helvetica when the brief calls for the authentic Swiss-modernist voice in print, signage, or a corporate identity, and the Monotype license is already paid for.
Inter
Reach for Inter for product UI, dashboards, and data-heavy screens, where its small-size tuning, OpenType number features, and free license make it the practical default.