MS Sans Serif is a proportional raster font introduced in Windows 1.x as "Helv". It changed to its current name starting with Windows 3.1. It is the default system font on Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, and Windows ME. It shares spots with typefaces like Terminal, Fixedsys, and System. Starting from Windows 2000, the default desktop scheme uses Tahoma (MS Sans Serif is still used on some dialog boxes). MS Sans Serif was available in the font sizes 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, and 24. When changing dpi settings in Windows 95 or later (in Windows 3.1, dpi setting is tied to screen resolution, depending on driver information file), Windows is configured to load a different MS Sans Serif font, historically called the "8514" variant.
Today, the font is still available in all editions of Windows 7 (a Euro symbol was added for the release of Windows 98), and is still used in menus, dialog boxes, etc. The name "Helv" is still used in Windows as a synonym for MS Sans Serif.
MS Sans Serif is very similar in design to Arial and Helvetica (the latter being the source of the abbreviated name "Helv").
Read more about MS Sans Serif: Microsoft Sans Serif, Non-Microsoft Operating Systems
Famous quotes containing the word sans:
“Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness, and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)