Typography 101

Arial and Helvetica are two common typefaces that are, superficially at least, very similar. In fact, they are indistinguishable to most people. This is, as even a cursory examination will reveal, clearly not the case. Matthew Butterick, author of Typography for Lawyers, an excellent introduction to the basic tenets of typographic style, writes: “As a system font, Arial has achieved ubiquity akin to Times New Roman. And like Times New Roman, Arial is permanently associated with the work of people who will never care about typography.” This might seem like unjustified obloquy — after all, doesn’t everyone use Arial? — but Butterick is fundamentally correct. Arial is a terrible font:

...to typographers, Arial contains none of the consistency and balance that makes Helvetica successful. For instance, the ends of the lowercase a, c, e, g, s, and t in Helvetica are exactly horizontal. In Arial, those ends are sloped arbitrarily. Reading Arial is like trying to have dinner on a tippy restaurant table.

Keeping this in mind, Ironic Sans has composed a simple test. Can you separate the wheat from the chaff?