The designation “55 roman” forms the central point. The basic font weight, “Helvetica roman”, is at the heart of this numbering system. The original numbering system for the weight designations came from the numbering of the Univers font. Today, this family consists of 51 different font weights. Stempel AG redesigned and digitized the “Neue Helvetica” typeface for Linotype and made it a self-contained font family. Over the years, Helvetica was expanded to include many different weights, but these were not coordinated with each other.
The original letterforms of Helvetica had to be modified for the Linotype system. It forms an integral part of many printers and operating systems. This typeface, designed by Max Miedinger and other project members at the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei, has become one of the most famous and popular typefaces in the world, thanks to the marketing strategy of Stempel and Linotype.
