When I try to use Arial, the thickness of character parts is non uniform. For example, see how the "a" character has fat and skinny parts:
Helvetica, does not have such an "issue", but I do not like how the baseline of the characters is different, see for example the baseline between "a" and "L" on the left below:
Is there a way to make heavier Arial weights (bold) appear more like they should:
To make the two images, uncomment/comment the header below:
\documentclass{article}
% \usepackage{fontspec}
% \setmainfont{Arial}
% \renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault}
\usepackage{helvet}
\begin{document}
\Huge{tial}
\textbf{tial}
\end{document}
Best Answer
Try TeX Gyre Heros, from its homepage:
Test file for with showing the baseline:
Or with the part below the baseline in red:
The difference can even detected by TeX, the depth of the boxes:
A little protrusion for curved lines is IMHO correct, if it improves the appearance of a smooth baseline. The amount for this protrusion is the design decision of the font designer and to some degree a matter of taste.