Fonts

[Dogtrousers]

Fonts, typefaces, whatever they are called.

I see Microsoft have shocked the world by introducing a new font sub-family for Windows 10.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-windows-10s-new-default-user-interface-font/

But what bugs me is who actually cares about this stuff. It's the sort of nerdy thing that would be likely to appeal to me, but it all leaves me cold. It's just words.

In the 90s/2000s I worked for a start up company* and among the staff was a very keen young man with a degree in fonts or something who insisted that we all use the company standard (Tahoma) and got terribly upset, tore his hair, screamed "why do I bother!", if some very similar looking but subtly different font like Arial or Courier was used. Or god forbid Times New Roman, that really set him off. I never figured out why, I just played along and used Tahoma. Looking back I should have run off a document using Comic Sans, that would have killed him stone dead and put an end to the problem.

Some people have the absolute vapours over Comic Sans. I never got it. It's a font. Or maybe a typeface. Woo.

As Microsoft say: "We are introducing Segoe UI Variable which includes an optical axis so that font outlines can scale seamlessly from small to larger display sizes. Segoe UI Variable is a refreshed take on the classic Segoe, now with improved legibility at small sizes, and much improved outlines at display sizes,"

Meh. Whatever.

* Ended up in the hands of the receivers eventually. Probably because we used Tahoma. If we'd used Comic Sans it might have been a different story.

 

[PeteXXX]

When I used to be a Letterpress printer and typesetter, I was more interested in fonts, sans-serif and serif etc.
Not bothered quite so much now, though, as long as it's not a hard to read font in 6point.

 

[Tribansman]

Fonts...what bugs me is who actually cares about this stuff.

This guy

Being serious, totally agree. It's a ridiculous thing to get bothered about unless there's some kind of readability issue.

We were specifically told at university not to use Comic Sans for assignments as it showed 'we weren't taking it seriously enough'. Absurd.

 

[MichaelW2]

I once read the company manual for a world famous denim trouser company. They specified that one of the company values was that of "rule breaker" then went on to list all the rules that must be followed, including fonts.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

The last company I worked for (like many) had their own font, which of course can be important for having a consistent image on advertising, or for company publications, brochures, or for accurately putting the correct corporate name on polo shirts, aircraft, ships or whatever. But some numbskull in corporate branding and comms decided that "going forward" all letters and even emails would also have to use the company font. It became something that people actually policed.
Unfortunately nobody in Comms considered that the font, (while suiting the company's relaxed image very well), looked far too playful for communicating serious grown up legal stuff with Government entities, so I persevered with Arial. I was spoken to a couple of times but managed to avoid a birching somehow, before bailing not long after.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Used for baptisms too I understand. Those just need to hold water long enough I reckon. Controversial I know

 

[mistyoptic]

Some fonts can be easier to read for, for example, dyslexics and people with visual disability/partial sight.

it can be important which font you use, for sure, but I don’t see that we needed more.

 

[MontyVeda]

...

But what bugs me is who actually cares about this stuff. It's the sort of nerdy thing that would be likely to appeal to me, but it all leaves me cold. It's just words.

...

The sort of person who'd start a thread about it?

I used to work for a company where the big boss insisted we all use a specific font because he didn't like Times New Roman... I thought he was a bit of a bell end. If you don't like a font, don't use it... but don't insist your minions don't use it either. That's just control freakery

Personally, I love fonts and could happily spend days looking at them.

 

[GetFatty]

We've adopted Arial 12 as the organisation's font on the basis it is more accessible than others. You can change it but it reverts back the next time you log in

 

[matticus]

Being serious, totally agree. It's a ridiculous thing to get bothered about unless there's some kind of readability issue.

We were specifically told at university not to use Comic Sans for assignments as it showed 'we weren't taking it seriously enough'. Absurd.

Now you are being serious, I've tweaked my Browser Plugin so that all your posts display in Fractur. I like to show respect where due.

Elsewhere:
"...
Today the Führer, talking with Herr Reichsleiter Amann and Book Publisher Adolf Müller, has decided that in the future the Antiqua script is to be described as normal script. All printed materials are to be gradually converted to this normal script. As soon as is feasible in terms of textbooks, only the normal script will be taught in village and state schools."

 

[Ian H]

Some typefaces have a beauty all their own. Pre-Monotype Garamond for example, the various ones by Eric Gill, and even Helvetica.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Comic Sans inventor reveals he’s only ever used the reviled font once
Typographer Vincent Connare said he wrote a complaint letter using the type font
https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/com...ever-used-the-reviled-font-once-a3501001.html

 

[matticus]

I want to believe. I really want to be a font nerd and care desperately about it. But I just don't have the faith.

I might have a similar view. I find them quite interesting, but all the detail bores me (and the jargon often seems delibeartely illogical - like something artists dreamed up). I think perhaps there are too many now - if I'd been involved in fonts back in the early days of PCs/Macs, I might have gotten really into it.

(and who really knows which is font, and which is typeface?? pfftt ... )

 

[ianbarton]

But what bugs me is who actually cares about this stuff. It's the sort of nerdy thing that would be likely to appeal to me, but it all leaves me cold. It's just words.

story.

I often work in a terminal where being able to see the difference between "O" (the letter) and "0" (zero) is very important. The default font on this forum illustrates this problem!

 

[MontyVeda]

I often work in a terminal where being able to see the difference between "O" (the letter) and "0" (zero) is very important. The default font on this forum illustrates this problem!

good point. Whatever happened to putting a slash through a zero to differentiate it from O?