Through the 1960s and '70s Helvetica grew in popularity as the modernism trend took hold. Today, however, it is viewed by some as overused, plain or tired. I don't agree though. It is clean, strong and simple, lending itself to many, varied uses, and with the addition of Helvetica Neue (neue meaning new in German) it truly has endless possibilities.
Since Helvetica's creation, is has been re-designed and refined by a number of designers to give it a larger variety of weights. This made things difficult as different weights designed by different designers were given the same or similar names or the same weight often had different names.
In 1983, it was reworked as a complete set by D.Stempel AG, the daughter company of Linotype, and Helvetica Neue was born. Differences in alignment were corrected, subtle features were made consistent from one face to another, and all the weights and widths were designed to work together as one family. Changes included improved legibility, heavier punctuation marks, and increased spacing in the numbers. The outcome was a synthesis of aesthetic and technical refinements that resulted in improved appearance, legibility and usefulness. (www.fonts.com)
The font family is made up of 51 fonts including 9 weights in 3 widths, and an outline font based on Helvetica 75 Bold.
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