Helvetica Neue Alternative in Adobe Fonts

[Karen B Hutchison]

I’ve been notified by Adobe that it will no longer support Type 1 fonts in January. Unfortunately, the font I use for our company newsletter (Helvetica Neue) is Type 1. I'd like to keep the appearance of the newsletter consistent, but my IT department doesn't want to purchase an Open Type version of Helvetical Neue (if it even exists). Is there a way to find out what font in Adobe Fonts will most closely match Helvetica Neue (other than by visually wading through all the fonts)? Thanks.

[Scott Falkner]

Helvetica is a rather distinc typeface. People who know type will know Helvetica and know something isn’t Helvetica anymore. If you are using Macs the OS has a Truetype of Helvetica Neue built in. You can also purchase Helvetica Neue from many sources. 

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

"(if it even exists)."

It does. Linotype controls those families now as Adobe no longer offers them. If you were someone who had purchased Adobe Font Folio, they are there. OTF versions have been renamed though, so there still is some font replacing  work that would need to be done in your documents, but the outlines are in most case exact matches.

"but my IT department doesn't want to purchase an Open Type version of Helvetical Neue".

If you want it to match, yes, you will have to. Yes, the Mac still licenses it for their TTC version (TrueType Collection), but this will only be of use to you in a Mac environment, as Windows does not handle TTC format.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

You can check out the fonts mentioned here:

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-fonts-look-like-helvetica-1077403

I know CorelDRAW use to come with TT/OTF versions of Swiss (along with lots of other Bitstream fonts).

Of course, if the IT dept is that cheap, maybe they should just switch to Arial!

[Willi Adelberger]

Swiss from Corel has many errors and I don't like to use them therefore. With the TTF version I am not sure if this license allows embedding in PDF.

[Willi Adelberger]

Helvetica Neue is a very important font from Linotype (also in Adobe's Fonts) and exists with extended characters as OTF. You should buy a license to continue without problems. There is no reason for your IT department to avoid OTF fonts, excelt they want to stick with technology which was up to date 1985.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

@Willi Adelberger You bring up a good point--is the IT department concerned about the cost of the new fonts or the fact that they are OpenType? I got the idea it was about the cost. 

[Karen B Hutchison]

They don't like to put anything on our computers that is not standard issue.  I don't know why.

[John Mensinger]

Then you must appeal to someone in charge to declare The Open Type version of Helvetica Neue "standard issue". Any competent manager who understands the matter would just do it. Make them understand.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

>They don't like to put anything on our computers that is not standard issue.  

This doesn't make sense (this is directed at your IT dept., not you).

The original fonts were not "standard issue"--the Type 1 fonts had to be installed. OpenType fonts came out in the mid-90s--how far our to sync is your IT dept.? 

[Karen B Hutchison]

Thank you for the replies, everyone.  At this point, I'm confused.  I'm on a Mac, so it sounds like continuing to use Helvetica Neue shouldn't be an issue.  But if you look at what I've attached, you'll see 1) Adobe telling me I have 4 Type 1 fonts and 2) my preflight panel showing four Helvetica Neue fonts and one Optima. When I saw that, I assumed Helvetica Neue was the problem; it's the only font I have in this document four times.  But this morning I took a closer look at the preflight panel and I see that it says I have zero Type 1 fonts.  Is this just a bug?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

The Type 1 font warning is maddeningly sloppy and can be triggered by almost anything. If you've reviewed your active styles and none use T1 fonts, just ignore it. (There is, after all, some two years to go before it becomes absolute.)

Concur with above comments about an IT department that's afraid of anything not bundled with the OS. Smacks of the arrogant laziness so much of the field is known for. You know, by god if it works for the CEO, accountants and secretaries it should be good enough for the CAD, graphics and video folks too. (And I've run IT departments... don't think I am simply a prejudiced creative type! 🙂 )

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

If you're using a Mac, and have Helvetica Neue, yes, you are good to go FOR NOW but really, it's time to move on to OTF or choose a new typeface. There are still many problems with the TTC version with certain apps, even on a Mac. For instance because the TTC file for Hevetica contains FOURTEEN styles, it doesn't work well with apps that are used to old font "family" of" the typical four styles (Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic). Microsoft apps were an example of that, but have since been updated to properly list TTC fonts. Famously, Acrobat itself has a problem with them, so those people who like to use Acrobat as a text editor (DON'T DO THIS) find that they can only see a few of the fourteen styles (This is an issue with ANY TTC font on a Mac that has more than 4 styles).

It should be noted that Helevetica Neue in Type 1 was never "free". It was not part of the Postscript bundled fonts included with printers (Helvetica, Helevtica Condensed, and Helvetica Narrow were, but not Neue). Someone had to have paid for it for you to have it legally. And if that was years ago, I'd say you got a pretty good deal for your money over that time. If your IT department wants Helevetica Neue, they will need to buy the OTF versions, or find "approximate" knockoffs like Swiss that will be even more problematic.

By the way, although there are font utilities that can convert font formats from one to another, this is not a good/legal approach when perfect, legal OTF versions exist, albeit at a cost.