I don't know about you but my favourite measurement is the moonandback. The distance to the moon is 385,000,000,000 mm.
The size of an unkerned piece of normal cut Helvetica at 100pt is 136.23 mm.
Therefore it would take 2,826,206,643.42 helveticas to get to the moon.
NASA has used Helvetica on many of its spacecraft, so its probably possible to work out how many Helveticas HAVE gone to the moon.
Interestingly though, the typeface mankind chose to leave on the moon was Futura:
http://tinyurl.com/374d9wu
Posted by: Richard Holt | Jul 15, 2010 at 14:24
I found Richard's comment more interesting than the actual post. Well done, Richard Holt!
Posted by: coxy | Jul 15, 2010 at 16:40
This really does give a taste for how close the Moon actually is--if everyone on Earth owned a Helvetica unit only one in three would have to give their's up. Thanks for this.
Posted by: J PTak | Jul 15, 2010 at 21:00
Richard, that is brilliant.
Posted by: Ben | Jul 15, 2010 at 21:16
So the race is still wide open for the first serif to reach the Moon?
Posted by: Matt Edgar | Jul 16, 2010 at 10:22
Have you been taking drugs?
Posted by: Russell | Jul 16, 2010 at 12:40
“Interestingly though, the typeface mankind chose to leave on the moon was Futura”
A poorly typeset Futura on top of it. Just have a look at “Peace”. I hope the moon people won’t notice. Oh, the shame.
Posted by: Holger | Sep 09, 2010 at 15:24
Helv etica?
That lovely gap between the [v] and the [e]... Yes, the one you could drive... steer... pilot... whatever... a very large spaceship through, say the Star Dreadnought Executor... is not attractive at all. And so large... I'm certain the moon people wouldn't be able to miss it.
Unkerned Helvetica indeed!
Posted by: David Rice | Sep 09, 2010 at 19:08
This made me smile. I now have a mental image of a bunch of little Heleveticas stacking themselves on top of each other trying to reach the moon.
Posted by: Pam | Oct 27, 2010 at 21:58