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Participant
October 8, 2015
Answered

Can't find helvetica neue font in typekit

  • October 8, 2015
  • 5 replies
  • 104649 views

I have a PSD that uses helvetica neue heavy and helvetica neue light.  However, these exact fonts are not listed in Typekit but it's an Adobe font.  Is anyone able to get these fonts with the "portfolio and or performance" plan?  If not would you recommend that I buy the fonts from fonts.com or a similar seller?

Thanks,

Steve

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer sarsaxen

    Hi poeticArt,

    Adobe does not bundle any version of Helvetica with any applications. Nor is it available via TypeKit.You can find the alternative for Helvitica from Adobe Typekit.

    Photoshop uses the operating system fonts. Windows does not have Helvetica, Mac OSX does. Therefore it will show up in the Mac version of Photoshop.You might have used it as well.


    You have to purchase it separately and install it yourself in Windows or get a Mac.

    Refer How do I get "Helvetica" fonts for free when I use indesign by the creative cloud?

    Regards

    Sarika

    5 replies

    peters17473900
    Participant
    October 21, 2023

    The truth of it, the bottom line of it all, is that Adobe can cut any deal they want with any type foundry they want. They're Adobe for God sakes, they're HUGE. It shouldn't matter what the deal would cost, it's about supporting their customer' needs. They had Helvetica Nueue as part of the fonts they sold, and then, it became "cost prohibitive" for them to continue to include it in their font collection. Adobe should do what it takes to support it's users on the classic fonts and stop advocting a solution that involves "substitite or adjacent" fonts. There is no substitute to the classics, that's why they're classices! Helvetica is a classic!

    Community Expert
    October 21, 2023

    Adobe is a big company. Despite that they have no power to force type foundries, such as Monotype, to include their best selling fonts on the Adobe Fonts service for whatever terms Adobe offers.

     

    If anything, Adobe's large size makes them more of a target.

     

    Look what happened with the Pantone mess. Pantone decided they wanted to force Adobe customers to use their "Connect" plugin, which costs something like $180 per year. That's a lot of money just to essentially have up to date Pantone digital swatch book ACB files. That price does not include the physical swatch books. A Pantone+ Color Formula Guide of coated and uncoated swatches costs around $200. Those printed swatch books are supposed to be replaced on an annual basis. Pantone wants you to buy those physical swatches and then pay another almost couple hundred for some ACB files to go with the swatch books. Meanwhile, competing applications such as CorelDRAW and Affinity Designer have the "V5" Pantone swatch books still included in their applications for no extra charge. I think Pantone singled out Adobe due to its large size. It doesn't look like Pantone is making versions of its Connect plugin to work with CorelDRAW, Affinity Designer or any other rival graphics applications.

     

    If anything, Adobe should have been charging Pantone a fee to include its swatch books in Adobe's applications. Those swatch books are, in a way, a form of advertising. There are other swatch book companies such as Toyo and Trumatch. And swatch books from those companies are still included in Adobe software.

     

    Dolby is another example. They wanted a certain amount of money per subscriber for Adobe to continue including Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus encoding within Premiere Pro and Audition. Adobe removed the Dolby encoding capabilities in response. Maybe that was Dolby's idea all along. The encoding software Dolby sells is not cheap.

     

    Back to Monotype and Helvetica, there is another factor likely preventing Helvetica from showing up in the Adobe Fonts service: Monotype has its own font subscription service. They've really been pushing it hard lately. I've received lots of email from the MyFonts website about a $5000 sweepstakes; to enter you have to sign up for a Monotype fonts subscription. It's $199 per year for access to around 40,000 fonts (including Helvetica). Currently Monotype has 41 type families hosted on Adobe Fonts. It would not surprise me if Monotype decided to remove all of them in order to get more people to subscribe to their fonts service. Other companies have removed their fonts from Adobe Fonts. Font Bureau is the biggest example. Foundries like Font Bureau have to work with individual type designers. Some of those type designers restored typefaces they designed back on Adobe Fonts after Font Bureau had them removed.

     

    I agree Helvetica is a classic. If a certain typeface is important enough to someone's work flow they often just have to "pony up" and buy a copy. I did that with the two Helvetica Now releases in 2019 and 2021. I'm expecting a second Helvetica Now Variable release sometime in the future since the 2021 variable release has a width axis that only goes from normal to compressed. Monotype will probably ding Helvetica fans again with a "Helvetica Now 2" that has a variable axis going from normal to wide.

    Participant
    October 14, 2021

    Hey Adobe, any updates on this? 

    peters17473900
    Participant
    October 3, 2021

    Not having Helvetica continues to be a HUGE issue. Helvetica has been the default font used on so much creative over the years, there's tons of artwork that was set in Helvetica and Helvetica Neue. Not having Helvetica Neue on Typekit is a HUGE disconnect and something Adobe needs to correct. They sold everyone their font CDs years ago, and not to have those same fonts available on Typekit has been and will continue to be a HUGE problem. I'm sure it has something to do with paying the type foundries royalties or some other sort of financial decision. The bottom line is, I have YEARS worth of creative with tons of Helvetica and Helvectica Neue typesetting. Helvetica was and still is a terrific font for blocks of dense text and legal copy in documents. The Helvetica Neue kerning pairs were also much better than the base Helvetica, so tons of people migrated to Helvetica Neue when it was introcduced. Adobe needs to add all the fonts that they origanlly sold on their CDs onto Typekit. Not doing that is a HUGE disconnect to their business and supporting their long standing and LOYAL customers... It shouldn't matter if they make a couple nickels less on some of the fonts, do the right thing and add all the fonts. Why should we have to settle for "alternatives"? Stop messing around, add the Helveticas to Typekit, and in fact, add all the CD fonts to Typekit! They're "oldies but goodies," and a vast majority of the Adobe Community needs those fonts to get our work done!

    rhonaj70604138
    Inspiring
    October 11, 2021

    Previous message said it perfectly. Helvetica is a classic typeface and is a huge problem if it's not provided by Adobe. I have a client who uses it for everything and doesn't want to change. Come on Adobe, sort this one out and provide designers with such a staple as Helvetica.

    Known Participant
    September 12, 2021

    If you're looking for the old curated lists, try the Wayback Machine at archive.org

    The latest list of alternatives for Helvetica, from July 2018, were:

    Acumin Pro | Nimbus Sans | Pragmatica | Runda | FF Dagny Pro | DejaRip | FF Basic Gothic Pro | Proxima Nova | FF Meta Pro | JAF Facit | Myriad Pro | Adelle Sans

    https://web.archive.org/web/20180703235509/https://typekit.com/lists/alternatives-to-helvetica

    Other old font lists can be found here:

    https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://typekit.com/lists/*

     

    Known Participant
    September 12, 2021

    Once you land on the Wayback page for an old URL, just click the date of the last save and it'll pull up a copy of that page. It's not an obvious process.

    One drawback for these purposes: none of the old fonts work for Wayback. So you get no preview for the fonts listed - you have to search for them by name on the current Typekit page. But it's a start.

     

    sarsaxen
    Community Manager
    sarsaxenCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    October 8, 2015

    Hi poeticArt,

    Adobe does not bundle any version of Helvetica with any applications. Nor is it available via TypeKit.You can find the alternative for Helvitica from Adobe Typekit.

    Photoshop uses the operating system fonts. Windows does not have Helvetica, Mac OSX does. Therefore it will show up in the Mac version of Photoshop.You might have used it as well.


    You have to purchase it separately and install it yourself in Windows or get a Mac.

    Refer How do I get "Helvetica" fonts for free when I use indesign by the creative cloud?

    Regards

    Sarika

    poeticArtAuthor
    Participant
    October 8, 2015

    Thanks, Sarika.