Comment 0 for bug 475889

I have the full set of adobe helvetica including Helvetica Inserat and Helvetica Neue.

fontconfig seems to be merging these into one happy family called "Helvetica" regardless of variant (Neue or Inserat) or style.

As I'm using fontconfig 2.4.2 on Ubuntu I have also reported this on Launchpad:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fontconfig/+bug/24764
where there seems to be a similar problem that was bug #4924 here, apparently fixed. (So maybe it's a different problem).

fc-list | grep -i helvetica
seems to be missing out most of the Inserat / Neue / fractions variants and just using the name "Helvetica"

Helvetica:style=Fractions Bold
Helvetica:style=Ultra Compressed
Helvetica:style=.Black Oblique
Helvetica:style=Rounded Bold Condensed Oblique
Helvetica:style=Narrow Bold
Helvetica:style=Black
Helvetica:style=Narrow Bold Italic
Helvetica:style=Condensed Light
Helvetica:style=Oblique
Helvetica:style=Fractions
Helvetica:style=Condensed Medium
Helvetica:style=Narrow
Helvetica:style=Compressed
Helvetica:style=Rounded Black
Helvetica:style=Rounded Bold Condensed
Helvetica:style=Condensed Bold Oblique
Helvetica:style=Light
Helvetica Inserat:style=Roman
Helvetica:style=Light Oblique
Helvetica:style=Narrow Italic
Helvetica:style=Rounded Black Oblique
Helvetica:style=Bold
Helvetica:style=Condensed Bold
Helvetica Neue:style=Regular
Helvetica:style=Regular
Helvetica:style=Condensed Black Oblique
Helvetica:style=Condensed Light Oblique
Helvetica:style=Condensed Oblique
Helvetica:style=Condensed Black
Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
Helvetica:style=Extra Compressed
Helvetica:style=Rounded Bold Oblique
Helvetica:style=Rounded Bold

I also notice that Gnome Font Viewer gets it wrong.

HLB__*.PFB is called "Helvetica Neue, Regular" by Gnome Font Viewer which is wrong, the B after HL in HLB means BOLD.
Kfontview correctly calls it "Helvetica Neue, Bold"
fontforge also knows that the font is bold.
firefox chooses the wrong Helvetica
openoffice can't find any Helvetica at all

Note that fc-list did not show any bold versions of Helvetica Neue

# FC_DEBUG=384 fc-cache -f
shows:
        Scanning file /usr/share/fonts/type1/dbam/hlb_____.pfb...
using FreeType family "Helvetica Neue"
using FreeType style "Regular"
        Type1 weight Bold maps to 200
        Style Regular maps to width -1
        Style Regular maps to slant -1
        Style Regular maps to decorative 0
...

So it knows after a fashion that this is Bold, but still calls it style "Regular"

and then:
        Scanning file /usr/share/fonts/type1/dbam/hlbc____.pfb...
using FreeType family "Helvetica Neue"
using FreeType style "Regular"
        Type1 weight Bold maps to 200
        Style Regular maps to width -1
        Style Regular maps to slant -1
        Style Regular maps to decorative 0

the hlbc_*.pfb is bold condensed, but even kfontview did not "know" this.

Inkscape shows the fonts available as:

Hevetica: Regular, Black, Compressed, Condensed Black, Condensed Light, Extra Compressed, Fractions, Light, Narrow, Rounded Black, Ultra Compressed, Condensed Medium, .Black Oblique, Condensed Black Oblique, Condensed Oblique, Light Oblique, Narrow Italic, Oblique, Rounded Black Oblique, Bold, Condensed Bold, Fractions Bold, Narrow Bold, Rounded Bold, Rounded Bold Condensed, Bold Oblique, Condensed Bold Oblique, Bold Oblique, Narrow Bold Italic, Rounded Bold Condensed Oblique, Rounded Bold Italic

(and shows the wrong face, e.g. i see a fractions face when Regular is selected)

Helvetica Inserat: Roman, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic

Helvetica Neue: Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular, Regular

Which clearly isn't right.