<p>Ok, so that’s a little extreme. I’m going to preface this post a little bit. I love Helvetica as a font. It’s a gorgeous font, and it has <a href="http://www.helveticafilm.com/">stood the test of time</a>. So now that everyone understands my opinion on the font, I’ll go back to my original post…</p>



<p>Why do designers decide to use Helvetica for their site’s body copy? It looks <strong>AWFUL</strong> at small sizes.</p>

<p>The sizes that I think have the most problems are 12px and lower. Unfortunately, I have seen sites that use body copy as small as 10px. It’s pretty sad that when I get to a site that uses a small size of Helvetica as the body copy, I change the body <code>font-family</code> to Verdana using <a href="http://getfirebug.com/">Firebug</a>.</p>

<p>I made an <a href="//trevor-davis.com/play/helvetica/">example page to show the various Helvetica sizes from 10px – 20px</a>.</p>

<h2 class="replaceHeadline">Helvetica on Windows</h2>
<a href="//trevor-davis.com/images/content/2008/01/screenshot-windows.gif" title="Helvetica on Windows Screenshot"><img src="//trevor-davis.com/images/content/2008/01/screenshot-windows_thumb.gif" alt="Windows Screenshot" class="thumbnail" height="125" width="468" /></a>

<h2 class="replaceHeadline">Helvetica on the Mac</h2>

<a href="//trevor-davis.com/images/content/2008/01/screenshot-mac.gif" title="Helvetica on Mac Screenshot"><img src="//trevor-davis.com/images/content/2008/01/screenshot-mac_thumb.gif" alt="Windows Screenshot" class="thumbnail" height="112" width="468" /></a>

<h3 class="replaceHeadline">In Conclusion</h3>
<p>So I guess this is more of a call to action than a post. So web designers, <strong>Stop Using Helvetica</strong> at such small sizes!</p>