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Does anybody know a font on google web fonts that is very similar to Helvetica Neue?

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Specifically which of the type-styles are you looking for? Like Weight? I normally can find close matches (not exact like noted) but only for one weight and style. So if you want to match an italic, there are better fonts than if you want to match black. – RKS Aug 8 '12 at 20:54

5 Answers

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That's the thing about Helvetica, there isn't really anything quite like it. We are talking about one of the (if not the) most beautiful font in existence.

You could settle for Open Sans or Source Sans Pro but it won't be the same. But you probably already know that as there are only 121 fonts to choose from.

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thank you very much for the fast reply! yeah, that's also what i have found. i think i'll stick to Arial for this time to offer a good reading experience. – amannnn Aug 7 '12 at 6:44
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There are lots of fonts very similar to Helvetica, and Arial is extremely similar; unless you really know what you are looking for, only a few of the glyphs are distinguishable by eye; metrics and spacing are the same. Yes, I know why it's considered an impostor. – e100 Aug 15 '12 at 21:56
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It's not in Google fonts (I think), but the .ttf can easily be converted for @font-face. I find Liberation Sans really beautiful. Plus it renders REALLY well in most browsers, and it's free for personal and commercial use:

enter image description here

http://www.dafont.com/liberation-sans.font

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Liberation Sans looks very nice at small pixel size, because is very well hinted, almost to the same level as Arial in terms of displaying well at small sizes with hinting (which Windows heavily relies on, not so much Mac/iOS/Android/Linux). Note that running a font through FontSquirrel's generator throws away all such hinting information and adds auto-hinting instead, so I wouldn't recommend that. – thomasrutter Jan 31 at 2:59
That said, despite being Sans-Serif and having matching geometry, Liberation Sans is not "very similar" to Helvetica. But plenty of typefaces are. – thomasrutter Jan 31 at 3:01
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Arimo on Google Web Fonts is identical to Liberation Sans; see my Helvetica-like font stack.

enter image description here

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I just tried the "Roboto" font and it seems OK:

enter image description here

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Hi David, welcome to GD.SE! I added a link and image to your answer. Could you maybe add some more details to it? What do you mean by "OK"? Did you try the browser rendering? – Yisela♦ 2 days ago
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The best matched font to Helvetica Neue can be found on cufonfonts rather than Google fonts:

http://www.cufonfonts.com/en/font/109/dejavu-serif

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Welcome to GD.SE! Maybe you misread the question? This is a serif font and Helvetica is sans-serif...they're very different! – Brendan Feb 12 at 16:13

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