What is the closest font to Helvetica available on Ubuntu?
As I understand we don't have the font Helvetica in Ubuntu. Is there any font that is very similar to it? How can I install it?
The PostScript language defines 35 core fonts in PostScript 2. Among them is the Helvetica family. A properly configured system should automatically substitute one of the following fonts, if available:
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Microsoft commissioned a copy of Helvetica – The well-known Arial. (
ttf-mscorefonts-installer) -
Google commissioned the Croscore fonts, designed to be metrically compatible with Microsoft fonts. The Arial equivalent is Arimo. (
fonts-croscore) -
Red Hat commissioned a set of fonts designed to be metrically compatible with Microsoft fonts. The equivalent of Arial is Liberation Sans. (
fonts-liberation2) -
URW released open-source clones of the 35 Postscript fonts for ghostscript. The Helvetica equivalent is Nimbus Sans. The metrics are slightly different from Arial.
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GUST TeX Gyre is based on the URW fonts. The Helvetica equivalent is TeX Gyre Heros. The metrics appear to have been adjusted to match Arial. (
fonts-texgyre) -
GNU FreeFont is based on the URW fonts, with the same metrics. The Helvetica equivalent is FreeSans. (
fonts-freefont-ttf)
Reference
- ArchWiki: Metric-compatible fonts
There are many Alternative Typefaces to Helvetica. Download one and install. For example, Coolvetica.
After downloading a .zip archive, extract it with an archive manager. You may then install fonts using the method Helio describes.