However, when discussing italics and other weights that were not shipped with OS X, we refer instead to extant Lucida Grande styles and weights found on B&H’s web site.

When we talk about Lucida Grande regular and bold weights, we usually mean the versions that were used as OS X system fonts and are still found in the font repertoire of OS X. Hence, although Lucida Grande is no longer the default system font family, it nevertheless influences the metrics of its replacement, like the ghosts of departed quantities. The difference is only around 1.5%, but the slight size increase brings Helvetica Neue closer to the x-height and width metrics of Lucida Grande. A difference between the standard and OS X “system” versions of Helvetica Neue is that the latter have been metrically tweaked to render slightly larger than the standard versions. When we talk here about Helvetica Neue, we generally mean the OS X desk interface or system versions unless we explicitly say otherwise. In OS X version 10.10, two families of Helvetica Neue can be found, a standard family and a special system or “desk interface” family. We discuss these in the sections that follow. There are apparent differences in readability. There are qualitative differences in aesthetics, graphical origins, and design classification. There are measurable differences between Lucida Grande and Helvetica Neue in letter forms, letter spacing, letter widths, and other metrics. Both have system and non-system variants, though their character sets vary. Both have been system fonts on Macintosh OS X, though one in the past and one in the present. Both have double names, though of different meanings and origins.* Both are sans-serif typefaces, though of different design philosophies.

Helvetica neue bold history