Can you tell Arial from Helvetica?

[pokerfan]

Take the test: http://www.ironicsans.com/helvarialquiz/index.php

[whistler162]

1. Yeah... doesn't Arial have fins and Helvetica

have legs?

[pokerfan]

2. so you aced it?

[Heidi]

3. I missed three of 'em.

:(

[Richardo]

5. ...and you're immersed in Swiss fonts on a daily basis.

Very disappointing, Heidi. :spank:

[Heidi]

8. I know.

I think I may have been distracted by a sans-seraph, manual typewriter tap-tap-tapping away in the distance. :P

[Chan790]

6. Which 3?

I got 18/20 the first time and 20/20 the second time, but some of those were hard.

[Heidi]

7. They were three without Cs in them, as I recall.

Helvetica is a less open typeface than Arial, but I have to admit I much prefer Helvetica. :hi:

[Richardo]

4. I got 15 of 20

[crispini]

9. 16 / 20

Once I figured out that the big difference is in the lower case A's and E's, the test was pretty easy. There's not a lot of difference to my eye in the upper case letters, though.

[edbermac]

10. 17 out of 20

The original looks a little bigger than arial

[brendan120678]

11. I got 18/20, but before I took the quiz, I...

went to the website and read their lesson on identifying the differences between some of the letters.

The two I got wrong were Mattel and Toyota.

[Brickbat]

12. Aced it. But then, I work with type and words. Helvetica and Arial are really quite different -- if

you know where to look.

[TheMightyFavog]

13. 18/20

My cues are the lowercase c's a's, and e's. Damn that documentary about Helvetica that I saw on PBS last year. I now see Helvetica everywhere!

I got BASF and Staple's wrong.

[Chan790]

14. lowercase t and uppercase F are the giveaways there.

The top of the Arial t is slanted and the Helvetica t is flat.

The middle line of the Helvetica F is equidistant from the top and the bottom. The Arial F, it is closer to the top.

Generally I think Arial looks thinner (and thus taller on the page) while Helvetica looks more robust, that's just an observation and I don't know why.

[northzax]

15. I think a much more important question

is can you tell your fonts from your cheeses?

[laconicsax]

16. I thought I could...

...and getting 19/20 on that test confirms it.

[Auggie]

17. 19 out of 20... got me on MATTEL

[ChickMagic]

18. 18/20

And I should know better - it's my job as a designer.
I can pretty much tell any font that I have in my
database. Mattel and digital did me in.

[Throd]

19. 18/20 I hang my head in shame...

[REP]

20. 20/20 - former typesetter/graphic designer

There are certain things that makes them easy to tell apart.