Microsoft Sans Serif
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| Category | Sans-serif |
|---|---|
| Classification | Neo-grotesque sans-serif |
| Designer(s) | Microsoft |
| Foundry | Microsoft Typography |
| Date created | 1997 |
| Date released | 1997 |
| Design based on | MS Sans Serif (variation), Helvetica |
| Trademark | Microsoft Sans Serif is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. |
Microsoft Sans Serif is a TrueType font introduced with Windows 2000. It is a successor of MS Sans Serif (formerly Helv), a proportional raster font introduced in Windows 1.0. Both fonts are very similar in design to Arial and Helvetica.
Microsoft Sans Serif's ancestor is Helv, a raster font included with Windows 1.0 and later. In Windows 3.1, the raster font was renamed MS Sans Serif. "Helv" is still a valid alias for MS Sans Serif. OS/2 and its successor eComStation still name the font "Helv".
MS Sans Serif is the default system font on Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, and Windows ME. A Euro symbol was added to this font for the release of Windows 98. MS Sans Serif is available in the font sizes 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, and 24. When changing the DPI settings in Windows 95 or later, Windows loads a different MS Sans Serif font, historically called the "8514" variant, which adds sizes 23 and 30 points.
Microsoft Sans Serif is a TrueType font that is designed as a vectorized, metric-compatible variant of MS Sans Serif, distributed with Windows 2000 and later. This font also contains most glyphs shipped with any version of Windows until Windows Vista, excluding fonts supporting East Asian ideographs. The PostScript font name is MicrosoftSansSerif.
Despite being a vectorized replacement, there are subtle design changes. For example, the tail in the lowercase "a" is shortened to a vertical stem in Microsoft Sans Serif, the top of the stem on the lowercase "f" curves down instead of horizontally, the hook at the descenders of "y" and "j" are hooked up in Microsoft Sans Serif, the strokes in the middle of digit "8" intersect at a different angle. Capital R, which was designed in the style of original Helvetica in the original MS Sans Serif, is instead a compromise between Helvetica and the straight-diagonal descender in Arial; the descender curves at the top and is a straight diagonal at the bottom.
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