What are some good fonts to pair with helvetica?

the helvetica neue family specifically.
What are some good fonts to pair with helvetica?
For an effective design, one needs to know the purpose of the graphics to make a proper selection of typefaces.





I hope that you have not selected the Helvetica font before you have considered the totality of what you intend to create. Is it a poster? Could you be making a flyer, birthday invitation, magazine article or even an entire book layout?





Certain font families, such as most sans serif fonts, are designed to be used and read as headlines. They are meant to be seen and recognized in an instant, or, at a distance. The eye recognizes these letter shapes quickly, because, these are the kind of letters we first learned to read. They are ingrained in our memories for almost as long as our language skills.





Serifed fonts, on the other hand, have an entirely different purpose. The little dashes on the end of the letters help they eye scan across a page full of text, such as in long paragraphs and entire pages of text. The serifs keep the eye scanning on the same line, for ease of reading.





There ARE some serifed fonts, and sans serif typefaces that are designed at cross purposes. Most of these are intended to be more decorative. They eye needs more time to read and understand the text, so, would only be suitible in a situation where the viewer has the luxury of time to think about what the graphic is trying to say. On a poster, for instance, intended to be quickly read in passing, an elaborate, decorative font, such as any of the Old English styles, the words may be seen and long passed before the reader has understood. In such a case, the purpose of the poster is lost and the effort wasted.





Some rules of thumb for most graphic design purposes. Sans serif font for headlines and serifed fonts for body text. A good design will have no more than two, perhaps three fonts on the same page. Any variation in size is fine, as long as it is appropriate for the setting.





To answer your question about using Helvetica: If the entire page is headlines, I wouldn%26#039;t use any other sans serif font. If part of the layout includes paragraphs of body text, any of the classic book fonts will do, such as Times New Roman, Garamond, Bookman and such. For the purpose of keeping the page interesting and artisticly compelling, the variety should be in font size, bold or italic, and, if appropriate, in color. Keeping these variations within the same two typefaces helps give the layout some continuity and the viewer%26#039;s mind focused on the message.