FOP Helvetica - is it really Arial?

[Scott Moore <sm...@novacoxmail.com>]

Font Gurus,

There's a debate raging in our company right now about the use of Arial and
Helvetica in FOP produced PDF.  After careful examination of both fonts, I
can see absolutely no difference, even though Helvetica has minor but
distinguishable differences from Arial.

I'm using the information on this website to distinguish between the two
fonts: http://www.ms-studio.com/articlesarialsid.html

It appears to me that Helvetica is actually Arial in the PDF.  Even when I
have Acrobat Reader 5.0 list the fonts, it says Helvetica maps to ArialMT.

So, my question is: is this a problem with FOP or Acrobat Reader?  Is
Helvetica something that Acrobat Reader renders or did FOP use Arial for the
Helvetica font?  I'm not exactly sure how fonts work in PDF, but I've read
Helvetica comes standard with PDF.  I find it strange that Helvetica is
mapping to Arial though.

I'd appreciate any background information you could give me on this subject!
Actually, what it boils down to is this: why bloat the PDF with embedded
Arial, when Helvetica is exactly the same font IMHO?

Thanks,
Scott

Re: FOP Helvetica - is it really Arial?

[Jeremias Maerki <je...@outline.ch>]

AFAIK the standard fonts specified in the PDF spec match the base 14
fontset of PostScript which includes Helvetica, Times, Courier, Symbol
and ZapfDingbats. Acrobat 3.x, I think, used Helvetica and Times.
Current versions include Arial. Helvetica is then replaced by ArialMT.
Furthermore, I've read (and experienced myself) that Arial (by Microsoft)
is not the same as Helvetica. Don't know about ArialMT (by Adobe).

> Scott Moore wrote:
> > There's a debate raging in our company right now about the use of Arial and
> > Helvetica in FOP produced PDF.  After careful examination of both fonts, I
> > can see absolutely no difference, even though Helvetica has minor but
> > distinguishable differences from Arial.
> > 
> > I'm using the information on this website to distinguish between the two
> > fonts: http://www.ms-studio.com/articlesarialsid.html
> > 
> > It appears to me that Helvetica is actually Arial in the PDF.  Even when I
> > have Acrobat Reader 5.0 list the fonts, it says Helvetica maps to ArialMT.
> > 
> > So, my question is: is this a problem with FOP or Acrobat Reader?  Is
> > Helvetica something that Acrobat Reader renders or did FOP use Arial for the
> > Helvetica font?  I'm not exactly sure how fonts work in PDF, but I've read
> > Helvetica comes standard with PDF.  I find it strange that Helvetica is
> > mapping to Arial though.
> 
> AFAIK the standard fonts supported by the Adobe tools (and the
> PDF format) include Arial, but not Helvetica. The glyphs rendered
> for FOP "Helvetica" are certainly taken from Arial. I'm not sure
> whether the font metrics used by FOP is indeed generated from an
> Helvetica font, or whether it is actually an Arial font, with the
> name being some historic relict (AFAIK early PDF specs had
> Helvetica instead of arial in them).

Cheers,
Jeremias Märki

mailto:jeremias.maerki@outline.ch

OUTLINE AG
Postfach 3954 - Rhynauerstr. 15 - CH-6002 Luzern
Tel. +41 41 317 2020 - Fax +41 41 317 2029
Internet http://www.outline.ch

Re: FOP Helvetica - is it really Arial?

["J.Pietschmann" <j3...@yahoo.de>]

Scott Moore wrote:
> There's a debate raging in our company right now about the use of Arial and
> Helvetica in FOP produced PDF.  After careful examination of both fonts, I
> can see absolutely no difference, even though Helvetica has minor but
> distinguishable differences from Arial.
> 
> I'm using the information on this website to distinguish between the two
> fonts: http://www.ms-studio.com/articlesarialsid.html
> 
> It appears to me that Helvetica is actually Arial in the PDF.  Even when I
> have Acrobat Reader 5.0 list the fonts, it says Helvetica maps to ArialMT.
> 
> So, my question is: is this a problem with FOP or Acrobat Reader?  Is
> Helvetica something that Acrobat Reader renders or did FOP use Arial for the
> Helvetica font?  I'm not exactly sure how fonts work in PDF, but I've read
> Helvetica comes standard with PDF.  I find it strange that Helvetica is
> mapping to Arial though.

AFAIK the standard fonts supported by the Adobe tools (and the
PDF format) include Arial, but not Helvetica. The glyphs rendered
for FOP "Helvetica" are certainly taken from Arial. I'm not sure
whether the font metrics used by FOP is indeed generated from an
Helvetica font, or whether it is actually an Arial font, with the
name being some historic relict (AFAIK early PDF specs had
Helvetica instead of arial in them).

J.Pietschmann