Helvetica as Body Text
As the periennial favourite Sans Serif typeface of most designers, Helvetica is very widely chosen for it’s simplicity and versatility. It is however, often overused. When in doubt, use Helvetica was a common but disastrous rule many designers followed.
Is Helvetica is actually good for body text at all?
Take a look at the following comparison between various popular typefaces used in body text. Think of how any one of them is easier to read than the rest.
What have you observed? They all pretty much looks similar, some are more roundish and softer than the others, but why is it that some are more readable?
When we read text, especially large amounts of text, our eyes gets tired fast. That is why clutter is usually shunned. Our eyes need space / white space / negative space or whatever you call it, to rest on. Having space around bodies of text is important, but having space in the bodies of text is even more important. Comparing Helvetica Neue LT Std 55 Roman and Univers LT Std 55 Roman, you can see that Univers provide more space in between lines. Leading was constant throughout. The reason Univers looks more lose is that it has a slightly smaller x-height than Helvetica, creating the space.
When you are dealing with clutter, always think of ways to create space. When choosing your typeface, 1 thing you should take into consideration is x-height.
I hope this article was helpful.
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