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Helvetica (Neue) is used for h1, h2, h3, input, select, button, and a few other specific elements. Yet for the main font declaration on body, Helvetica is nowhere to be found, only its impostor, Arial. Since Helvetica is already being used for parts of the site's typography, I don't see why it shouldn't be for all of it.

The layout is not adversely affected by putting Helvetica in front of Arial, as can be evidenced below in the difference between Arial & Helvetica (addition is purple, subtraction green).

Arial/Helvetica difference

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  • I would +1 again for correctly spelling the word "impostor". – BoltClock's a Unicorn Nov 19 '11 at 6:46
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    @BoltClock I've just checked in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and actually both impostor and imposter are valid. Besides that, with modern spell checkers there's no excuse for using wrong spelling. – Georg Schölly Nov 19 '11 at 12:14
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    I was looking at the two images thinking Well I kind of prefer the second one, even though it's surely Arial - but... that's borderline blasphemy! Turns out it was Helvetica. I'm kind of relieved now. :) – Georg Schölly Nov 19 '11 at 12:15
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    Helvetica or death! – user149432 Jan 22 '12 at 22:01
  • As an aside: simply adding Helvetica to font-family might need some alignment tweak for the close links in dialogs. (Or the dialogs close links could stick to Arial.) – Arjan Jan 23 '12 at 6:48
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This should have all been long reverted by now.

I am not a fan of Helv (Neue) on the trilogy, to put it mildly.

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  • Are there any special reasons? – Time Traveling Bobby Jan 23 '12 at 11:20
  • Arial is a very, very well understood font at this point. It ain't broke. – Jeff Atwood Jan 23 '12 at 11:22
  • The cat ate the font? ;) – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Jan 23 '12 at 11:35
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    Excuse me, but how do I have to understand the "understood" in this sentence? Do you mean it is a well known/accepted font? – Time Traveling Bobby Jan 23 '12 at 12:05

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