I have a quick update to last year’s ‘Arial and Helvetica alternatives’ post.
I am adding a fifth typeface to the four free ones I recommended in the ‘Slightly different from Arial and Helvetica’ section.
My free favourites [updated]
These are my four five free recommendations:
Inter (and Inter Display) from Rasmus Andersson – also available from Google Fonts, though there these are called Inter and Inter Tight, respectively
Public Sans from USWDS – currently supports only the Latin writing system
Officer Sans Free from HvD FONTS – also has a paid version (more font weights + condensed versions)
Nebula Sans from Nebula – currently supports only the Latin writing system
[NEW] Nacelle from Dot Colon – currently supports only the Latin writing system, but it does come in thin, ultra-light, light, regular, semi-bold, bold, heavy, and black weights
Introducing Nacelle
My new recommendation, Nacelle, is a bit like Unica: the typeface that combines the strengths of Univers and Helvetica. Meaning this typeface is a little friendlier and a tad less neutral than Helvetica. For example, Nacelle has:
feet on the lowercase ‘l’ that makes it easier to distinguish from the uppercase ‘I’ and
circular tittles (ie dots) on the lowercase ‘i’ and ‘j’ instead of the square ones in Helvetica.
Nacelle was released in 2022 (as an update to Sora Sagano’s earlier typeface, Aileron) but I only really looked into it this week.
It is a cool typeface that I am happy to recommend as a more interesting alternative to Helvetica – though only if you’re going to be writing in English, since it has just a limited Latin writing system character set.
FYI, the text used in the comparison-graphic above is from the opening sentences of The Rook by Daniel O’Malley.