MS 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 |
| Also known as | MS Shell Dlg Helv |
| Trademark | Microsoft Sans Serif is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. |
MS Sans Serif is a proportional raster font introduced in Windows 1.x as "Helv". MS Sans Serif is very similar in design to Arial and Helvetica. It changed to its current name in Windows 3.1. A TrueType version, Microsoft Sans Serif, was introduced with the release of Windows 2000.
MS Sans Serif is the default system font on Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, and Windows ME. Starting from Windows 2000, the default desktop scheme uses Tahoma. MS Sans Serif is available in the font sizes 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, and 24. When changing dpi settings in Windows 95 or later (in Windows 3.1, dpi setting is tied to screen resolution, depending on driver information file), Windows is configured to load a different MS Sans Serif font, historically called the "8514" variant, which adds sizes 23 and 30 points.
Today, the font is still available in all editions of Windows 7 (a Euro symbol was added for the release of Windows 98), and is still used in menus, dialog boxes, etc. The name "Helv" is still used in Windows as a synonym for MS Sans Serif.
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 (designed by Microsoft). 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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