What is a good Helvetica substitute on Windows/PC?

[phi nupe]

I am using a client's computer, it lacks Helvetica, what is a viable substitute?

[BobLevine]

Arial

Bob

[phi nupe]

Should've mentioned, I'm working on a print document, is Arial acceptable for print?

[BobLevine]

Sure. Why not?

Bob

[phi nupe]

Good to know - somewhere along the way, years ago, I picked up the idea that Arial was a web-only typeface.

[Jongware]

It has been designed on a more rigid pixel grid, so it looks better on screen than your average 'real' high resolution font. That translates in a high output resolution into not-really-subtile kerning and spacing. (That's the tell-tale sign of a printed Arial; well, that, and the minute differences in the actual character design.)

I'd be a little less sure than Bob, and would state it's a viable substitute rather than a good one

[Joel Cherney]

That translates in a high output resolution into not-really-subtile kerning and spacing.

That is a very subtle way to say it...

I have an old, old script that lets me specify custom kerning values for a font a la Quark's old Custom Kerning Table. I've always felt that it was worth the time to make those custom kerns in fonts like Arial (and languages like Hmong where the most common glyph pairs haven't been kerned by the type designer at all). I've been meaning to make GREP styles to accomplish the same thing, but the old Javascript works okay in those extremely rare circumstances where a typographically-astute client demands that translations be returned in Arial.