What is the closest font to Helvetica available on Ubuntu?

As I understand we don't have the font Helvetica in Ubuntu. Is there any font that is very similar to it? How can I install it?

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4 Answers

The PostScript language defines 35 core fonts in PostScript 2. Among them is the Helvetica family. A properly configured system should automatically substitute one of the following fonts, if available:

• Microsoft commissioned a copy of Helvetica – The well-known Arial. (ttf-mscorefonts-installer)

• Google commissioned the Croscore fonts, designed to be metrically compatible with Microsoft fonts. The Arial equivalent is Arimo. (fonts-croscore)

• Red Hat commissioned a set of fonts designed to be metrically compatible with Microsoft fonts. The equivalent of Arial is Liberation Sans. (fonts-liberation2)

• URW released open-source clones of the 35 Postscript fonts for ghostscript. The Helvetica equivalent is Nimbus Sans. The metrics are slightly different from Arial.

• GUST TeX Gyre is based on the URW fonts. The Helvetica equivalent is TeX Gyre Heros. The metrics appear to have been adjusted to match Arial. (fonts-texgyre)

• GNU FreeFont is based on the URW fonts, with the same metrics. The Helvetica equivalent is FreeSans. (fonts-freefont-ttf)

Reference

• ArchWiki: Metric-compatible fonts

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There are many Alternative Typefaces to Helvetica. Download one and install. For example, Coolvetica.

After downloading a .zip archive, extract it with an archive manager. You may then install fonts using the method Helio describes.

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I use Arial:

See Install MS Truetype Fonts system-wide for all users for how to install it.

Try the font 'Phetsarath OT' (at least it shows up in Inkscape; not sure if it is a system-wide font).

LaTeX on Ubuntu advertises having Helvetica as an option, but they actually use the one I mentioned.

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