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davide64405307
Participant
September 21, 2017
Answered

Helvetica and Zapf Dingbats

  • September 21, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 6657 views

I need choices for helvetica and zapf dingbats fonts in indesign. They aren't there. I have a full purchase licence (student-teacher) and there seems to be no way to add them. Can I buy them from Adobe? Is there another solution? Do I to switch to monthly licence (Arghh)? Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks

    Correct answer amaarora

    Hi,

    To the best of my knowledge Adobe InDesign does not bundle any version of Helvetica or Zapf Dingbats. Nor is it available via TypeKit. You can however purchase a license to use these font from a reseller

    There is no free version of Helvetica bundled with Windows and the version of Helvetica bundled with MacOS is a .dfont variant of TrueType Helvetica that may problematic for publishing use. Helvetica is a trademarked, commercial font. It is not free and anyone offering you a free copy or version of Helvetica is doing so outside the law.

    Like i said before, you can license Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, etc. from commercial font vendors including Adobe, Monotype, etc.

    You can also try and search for font alternatives for both these fonts and see if any of it matches your needs.

    For example for Helvetica, TypeKit provides the following font alternatives to Helvetica.

    -Aman

    4 replies

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    davide64405307Author
    Participant
    September 22, 2017

    Thank you everyone. A friend and I (newspaper writer and designer) are starting a little freelance leaflet/brochure freelance business and were used to fonts from work. We have switched to new fonts suggested by you that we both have in inDesign CS6 and 5.5; now all good. Should have researched more before I guess. I still wish the world was less eager to through out stuff that wasn't broken, but hey, I am old. Minion, Myriad and Wingdings are fine. I'll try other suggested fonts as well.

    Thanks again

    amaarora
    Community Manager
    amaaroraCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    September 22, 2017

    Hi,

    To the best of my knowledge Adobe InDesign does not bundle any version of Helvetica or Zapf Dingbats. Nor is it available via TypeKit. You can however purchase a license to use these font from a reseller

    There is no free version of Helvetica bundled with Windows and the version of Helvetica bundled with MacOS is a .dfont variant of TrueType Helvetica that may problematic for publishing use. Helvetica is a trademarked, commercial font. It is not free and anyone offering you a free copy or version of Helvetica is doing so outside the law.

    Like i said before, you can license Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, etc. from commercial font vendors including Adobe, Monotype, etc.

    You can also try and search for font alternatives for both these fonts and see if any of it matches your needs.

    For example for Helvetica, TypeKit provides the following font alternatives to Helvetica.

    -Aman

    D
    Dynamic Office
    Legend
    September 22, 2017

    Acumin Pro is my favourite font of all time, I use it for everything and a great alternative for Helvetica since the licence is ridiculously overpriced.

      BobLevine
      Community Expert
      BobLevineCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 21, 2017

      Why do you need these exact fonts? There’s a ton of alternatives.

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      September 21, 2017

      Adobe hasn't included fonts by those names for many years. You might be able to buy them on special order but they are type 1, a basically obsolete format. There are equivalents with new names.

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