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Helvetica Neue problems

  • Hello,
    here is my problem:
    i have both mac and windows machines, and both have full serie of helvetica font.
    of course as expected, there is no problem on the mac :)
    but on the pc, if i visit a website that have 'Helvetica Neue' as default font, all browsers (except safari) are showing what i believe is Helvetica Neue CONDENSED instead of normal, and it make the whole text almost impossible to read.
    this is particularly annoying as i cant really test my css on the pc if i use that font.

    so i was wondering if it is a problem on my machine, or everyone with the helvetica font for pc got that problem ?
    i really hope its only me, otherwise all those nice looking websites on mac would look horrible on every pc with helvetica
  • try entering "HelveticaNeue MediumExt" or "HelveticaNeue MediumExt" , rather than just "HelveticaNeue".

    not many people will have this font though, so if you are having problems it might be easier to go with one of the web safe fonts. This website can help http://www.typechart.com/
  • thanx, i understand what u are saying, but my problem is mostly on other people's websites :)
    i mean a lot of people use helvetica neue as default font on their website.
    here some screenshots so u will see how horrible it looks for me

    these come from well known websites
    http://i27.tinypic.com/3313o1y.jpg
  • i've found an interesting article about this, for those who are interested:
    http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/06/ ... ialiasing/


    i feel like uninstalling helvetica on my pc now, because its really messed up

    why wouldn't all browser use safari anti-aliasing and font display, that would be much better for everyone.
  • While I understand your problem, I don't particularly sympathize. There is a group of web-safe fonts for a reason. Using anything outside of those (and ignoring things like sifr) is simply asking for problems.
  • i personally try to stick with web safe fonts too.
    the problem is that there is a bug in the way cleartype affect or not fonts.
    it doesnt render some fonts (mostly little sized) in a proper way.

    helvetica is by default installed on macs, and there is a reason for that too ... its so beautiful.

    what im searching now is a way to fix this.
    but i dont find anything.

    i dont even know if it is possible, but imagine, a jquery script for example that would disable the cleartype (or tweak it) to get a better anti-aliasing. that could bring windows users a better graphic experience on the net.
  • Let me know if you end up making something... I would LOVE a solution to this. Been urkin' me for months.
  • @chrispurifoy - I posted something on this somewhere on the forums. Not sure if this would be a solution, but try it.
    webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;