Helvetica- todays widely used font.

Some key points on Helvetica:

Helvetica is a swiss sans serif typeface that was developed by designer Max Miedinger with help from Eduard Hoffmann as the Haas type foundry.
The aim was to develop a neutral typeface that was had great clarity and could be easily read on the likes of signage.
It was originally called Neue Hass Grotesk and was based on Schelter Grotesk and Hass normal Grotesk.
It was created after the success of univers.
Arther Ritzel reworked it into a full family of weights etc.
In 1960 the name was changed by Haas' German parent company Stemple to Helvetica which is the Latin word for Switzerland due to its origins in order to make it more marketable internationally. Eduard Hoffmann originally rejected this name change as he felt it would not be appropriate to name a font after a country but came around due to the fact it means "swiss" as opposed to switzerland.
Similar typefaces have been created since including Monotype imaging, ParaType, Bitstream, Nimbus Sans.
Helveticas strokes are either cut horizontally or vertically.
Versions exist for the following alphabets/scripts - Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Khmer and Vietnamese, showing how widely adopted this typeface is. Chinese faces have also been developed to complement Helvetica.
Uses of Helvetica - Commercially used for businesses such as: Orange, BMW, Microsoft, Toyota,                           Panasonic, Motorola and many more.
                             -widely used by the government such as tax forms.
                             - Nasa uses it for the space shuttle orbiter
                             - Signage
it is seen as a trusting font so gives the right message of "you will get to your destination" "your money is safe with us"
Whilst many are pleased with its simplistic state others believe that its neutrality is a platform for creative design.

"It has a modern attitude which lines up with the aesthetic premises of the 1950s and 60s. Helvetica is a corporate typeface, but on the other hand it's the favourite of hairdressers and kebab shops. It is the butter on the bread."

Lars Mueller- Helvetica devotee.

"It's durable. It comes from natural design forms. It doesn't have an expression of fashion. It has very clear lines and characters, it looks like a very serious typeface," says Frank Wildenberg, managing director of Linotype, the German firm that owns the font.

Examples of different weights of Helvetica

Compared with other major fonts.