Helvetica small caps — Typophile archive

davidc7 October 2009 · 21:55

Am I missing something obvious, or has no one actually released a true small caps rendering of Helvetica? Same goes for Arial.

I've got a copy of TypeTool and I'm thinking about doing this as a fun project in my spare time. But no point in doing it if it's already been done.

(FWIW, fake small caps are one of my biggest typographic pet peeves. What annoys me the most is that Microsoft includes real small caps in all of their new ClearType fonts, yet Office still uses fake small caps with these fonts.)

http://www.kpao.org/blog/2008/07/microsoft-office-generated-small-caps-e...
http://www.kpao.org/blog/2008/07/small-caps-versions-common-web-fonts.html

William Leverette7 October 2009 · 22:55

Dan Reynolds seems to remember an obsolete GX (read: pre-OS X QuickDraw) version of Helvetica with small caps. From that link you can get a sense of similar fonts – even a convincing imitation with small caps, but otherwise incompatible with Helvetica/Helvetica Neue. Nothing to my knowledge is currently available, let alone installable, like a true Helvetica SC.

You may not be the first to do it, but hey, every revival has its share of ardent fans ;-)