Helvetica Compressed and Narrow

[djba...@skyler.mavd.honeywell.com]

What is the difference between Helvetica Narrow and Helvetica Compressed?
Are they meant for different situations or does having one mean you don't
want the other? Is there a good reason to use these fonts together or is
that a bad idea? Do these fonts complement Helvetica or would they clash
with it if used in the same document?

Thanks in advance. -- Don J. Bailey (Honeywell Inc.)

[Brian D Diehm]

>What is the difference between Helvetica Narrow and Helvetica Compressed?
>Are they meant for different situations or does having one mean you don't
>want the other? Is there a good reason to use these fonts together or is
>that a bad idea? Do these fonts complement Helvetica or would they clash
>with it if used in the same document?

Helvetica Narrow is a mathematically narrowed version of Helvetica. This
means that where the original Helvetica has uniform stroke thickness in
horizontal and vertical portions, that is not true of Narrow. It is the
usual sleazebag (relatively) result that you get whenever you take a font
designed for one width and compress or expand it.

Helvetica Condensed is designed from scratch. If you have both, use this.
In the case of Adobe, Helvetica Condensed comes in four weights with italic
(oblique) versions: light, regular, bold, and black. These weights comple-
ment the regular Helvetica weights. In contrast, Narrow comes in only the
two middle weights: regular and bold, italics included.

There should never be any need to mix Narrow and Condensed.

Helvetica Narrow is slightly narrower than Helvetica Condensed, and there-
fore you can squeeze a little more on a line. This is about the only valid
reason I can think of to use Narrow.

-Brian
--
Brian Diehm Interleaf Site License Program Manager
Tektronix, Inc. (503) 627-3437 bri...@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
P.O. Box 500, M/S 19-286
Beaverton, OR 97077