Did you know Windows quietly swaps out Helvetica font for Arial every time you open certain documents? This subtle substitution affects how text looks in Word, browsers, and more. Learn why Helvetica isn’t included in Windows, how Microsoft handles font replacements behind the scenes, and what you can do to regain control of your document’s true typography.
The Helvetica font isn’t in Windows or Microsoft Office – and it’s a noticeable absence for such a well-known font. Arial is Microsoft’s similar but not the same version of Helvetica. Microsoft plays some strange font substitution tricks that got us digging further.
If you open up a document with Helvetica formatting, Office for Windows will show you Arial as a substitute. That happens when an Office for Mac document (without font embedding) is opened on a Windows machine. Mac computers have Helvetica as a macOS supplied font as well as Arial which is installed by Microsoft Office.
For example, here’s a document in Word for Mac with both Helvetica and Arial fonts. Notice the difference between the right down stroke on the capital R – it’s almost vertical in Helvetica and more of an angle in Arial.
Now open the same document in Word for Windows and check out the capital R – they are the same even though there’s two different fonts. That’s because Windows has, without warning, replaced Helvetica with Arial on the displayed page.
The font list shows you the font that’s set in the document but there’s no direct or obvious way to know that the named font isn’t the one being displayed or, for the most part, printed.
That might not seem like a big deal but it’s a massive difference for designers and can cause all sorts of formatting hassles.
The only way to know what’s going on is to dig down to Options | Advanced | Show document content | Font Substitution.
Even then, the substitution isn’t clear.
We can see that ‘Helvetica Neue’ is substituted with ‘Malgun Gothic’ – no problem there.
According to Word the substitution for ‘Helvetica’ is ‘Helvetica’ or ‘Default’ depending on which part of the dialog box you read! That doesn’t make any sense on several levels. In fact ,it’s quite wrong and misleading. It’s a sneaky way to substitute a popular font while obscuring the truth.
Of course, the wording should be:
The default substitution for ‘Helvetica’ is ‘Arial’
You can change the font substitution for an individual document on the Word dialog shown above by choosing another font.
The idea of font substitution is a good one. Alas, Microsoft’s implementation lacks transparency or clarity for anyone who needs the exact font used. It’s not too much to ask that users are told when and what font substitution is done.
Windows is setup to use Arial whenever it sees a reference to ‘Helvetica’. This happens at the Windows level and doesn’t just apply to Microsoft Office. Most web browsers get the same thing – web pages that ask for ‘Helvetica’ to display in web page will get the Arial font instead. It drives web designers crazy, especially since CSS has a way to choose from a family of preferred fonts.
Way down in the bowels of the Windows Registry is HCLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\NTCurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes which lists the substitutions.
The registry has a list of font names and the font which Windows should deliver instead. The number after a comma is a specific Code Page. Some of those Windows entries are:
| Ask for this font | … | And you’ll get |
| Helv | MS Sans Serif | |
| Helvetica | Arial | |
| Times | Times New Roman | |
| Tms Rmn | MS Serif | |
| Arabic Transparent | Arabic – an Arabic language font | |
| Rod Transparent | Rod – a Hebrew font |
Font Embedding in Word for Mac
It took way too long, but in 2018 Word for Mac finally got a ‘font embedding’ option. Huge news for Office Mac users – font embedding!
Choose this option for any document using Helevtica and the file will appear with that font on a Windows or other device even if Helvetica isn’t installed.
