Why does MATLAB display font type "Helvetica" differently on Linux OS?

Ever since I started using R2014a+ version of matlab on my Linux workstation, I found that the Helvetica font displayed in my graphs look different.

For example, on my Linux, my figure looks like this:

On my mac, the same font looks like the Helvetica I have been using:

If I run

get(gca, 'fontname')

I get

ans =

Helvetica

on both systems.

How can I have MATLAB installed on Linux display the ordinary Helvetica? Thanks ahead of time!

Answer 1

[Thorsten]

There is some art and science involved in how a font is displayed best on a monitor, a process known as hinting. Different OS use different algorithms so the fonts will look different.

https://www.typotheque.com/articles/hinting

[Shan Dou]

Thanks for the answer! I've noticed that this difference only start to show up for R2014a and later. Previously the Helvetica font looked just fine on my Linux workstation. Are there any way to work around this? Linux OS also does not have "Arial" available when I tried the command "listfonts" command (though it is available on my Mac). Will users need to install additional font types that are desirable?

Thanks ahead of time!

[Walter Roberson]

Is it possible that R2014b is the version that changed rather than 2014a?

[Shan Dou]

Probably. Does anyone have a workaround?