Some distinctive characteristics in Helvetica’s letters are the small eye of the ‘e’ and the bowl of the a, which has a sharp hook upwards at top left. The ‘M’ is slightly splayed. The x-height (height of lower-case letters) is low, especially at larger sizes, making the capitals large relative to the lower case, while the top serifs on the ascenders of letters like ‘d’ have a downward slope and rise subtly above the cap height. helvetica typefaces are popular and often used, particularly for printing body text and books.

Over the years, a wide range of variants have been released in different weights, widths and sizes, as well as matching designs for a range of non-Latin alphabets. Notable features of Helvetica as originally designed include the termination of all strokes on horizontal or vertical lines and unusually tight letter spacing, which give it a dense, compact appearance.

Influences of Helvetica included Schelter-Grotesk and Haas’ Normal Grotesk. Attracting considerable attention on its release as Neue Haas Grotesk, Linotype adopted Neue Haas Grotesk for widespread release.

Like many neo-grotesque designs, Helvetica has narrow apertures, which limit its legibility onscreen and at small print sizes. It also has no visible difference between upper-case ‘i’ and lower-case ‘L’, although the number 1 is quite identifiable with its flag at top left.