h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

They fascinate me. I'm doing an art thing so I've been doing the usual and trawling through my list for this thing. I'm going for Palatino for it I think.

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/palatino/

One of that lot.

And everyone hates comic sans don't they?

I like it. Certainly better than Times New Roman.

I dislike it [Comic Sans] in formal documents. I don't mind if it's something a bit fun, or informal.

I'm frankly amazed anyone cares that much. I think there is either something I'm missing, or a conspiracy of pseuds, as with wine, only worse.

I can appreciate that with wine, there's either drinkable, or horrible, it's a matter of taste, and some nice ones are much nicer for reasons it's hard to articulate and for some people, to detect. It's all the poncy attempts to describe why that wind me up.

A body text font needs to be readable. If it's readable, I can't see any particular reason to prefer one over another, apart from very hard to quantify things to do with how it "feels", which I'm pretty sure are entirely subjective to the point that it would be hard to get two people to agree consistently.

One thing that winds me up is when I see fonts described as "clean and professional" or "warm and cosy" or similar. They're letter shapes.

Here's what I'd like to see: someone who describes a font with words like "classy" or "friendly" is shown a sample text in a particular font, and they have to pick three adjectives that describe that font. They're then strapped into a chair in front of a sample text of the font they have so described. One hundred people are shown the sample text and are then asked to come up with one, and only one, adjective to describe that font. Every time the randomly selected viewer names one of the words on the list, the font-describer gets a jelly baby, or similar pleasant treat of their choice. Every time the viewer names a words the describer DIDN'T use, the describer gets an electric shock. The shocks increase in intensity linearly towards the fiftieth, which is fatal.

I'd be prepared to bet folding money that
(a) I wouldn't need to buy a very big bag of jelly babies
(b) nobody would survive the full test.

Decorative fonts are a different matter, because they're designed to be seen as fonts. Good body text fonts should operate below the conscious level. If you notice a body text font, it's failed.

Favourite body text font would be any one I can read for an hour without noticing anything about it. Favourite decorative font is context-dependent, but I've got a soft spot for the font used for the title of the movie "Tron".

> I think there is either something I'm missing,<

Yes I think you are, on the evidence of that post. *Feeling* tired and somewhat grumpy this morning, though less than last night, so I can't be bothered to elaborate too much.

Clue though. History of how it came about which will have a relationship to an image..as much as look. But then 'look' will be dependant on its history. Artists have to take account of every little detail when making something worthwhile...well the ones I mix with. Pseuds?

Wouldn't touch 'em with a barge pole.

I look forward to a translation of post 5 into coherent English.

You don't get it, Hoo. That's OK. Some of us do find fonts interesting, and find that they imbue a text with a certain feel. That's also OK.

I agree that a fonts primary focus should be on readability. That's what a typeface is there for.

If everyone felt like you, we'd all still be using Courier and nobody would care. As that is evidently not the case, I'd say that says that there's a decent wedge of people who don't feel like you.

Personally I rarely move away from Calibri these days. Basically I'm too lazy to change the default setting.

I can't remember the last time I used something other than Arial, Comic Sans, Times New Roman or Verdana and the only reason I use Verdana is because my employer insists on it for all letters to parents etc.

Arial and Comic Sans are both very clear and readable which is why I stick to them almost exclusively. I use Comic Sans for presentations because it's more easily read at distances than Arial.

In terms of typography I like but never use, Johnston (the font used for the London Underground) is cool and I like the font used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That's about it though - as Hoo says, good fonts shouldn't be noticed.

I'm with Hoo - although possibly with less torture involved.

Everybody hates Comic Sans? Yeah, everyone who sees the internet hate campaign and jumps on the bandwagon.
I hate the received wisdom of bandwagons so am now a fan of Comic Sans
(well actually I don't care one way or the other but I most definitely hate received wisdom bandwagons)

I don't hate Comic Sans either - it really is very clear to decipher. However I agree with the opinions on a recent thread that it is not suitable for official documents.

I dislike all serifs. For decorative writing I choose Marigold or - at a pinch - Monotypes Corsiva.

I dread the day when we only have true type fonts at our disposal.

I like the wine analogy.

Verdana: Shy, yet possessing an inner self-confidence which bursts through with a final crescendo.
Palatino: Full-bodied and lush with overtones of marmite and green fruit pastilles
Tahoma: Like running through nettles in a shell-suit.

>I don't hate Comic Sans either - it really is very clear to decipher. However I agree with the opinions on a recent thread that it is not suitable for official documents. <

Indeed - not really something to froth at the mouth over though is it?
I've seen a nobel prize winning scientist deliver a lecture in comic sans ms.
Although it was a little weird, the concentration on the content of the lecture was what was important and if you stop listening because they're using an inappropriate font for your sensibilities then it's you who's the idiot frankly.

"I rarely move away from Calibri these days. Basically I'm too lazy to change the default setting."

Ha! Yes! I stuck with Times New Roman for many years for largely the same reason.

I find that fonts do portray a certain 'feeling' in a document... I'm more likely to take a formal letter seriously if it's in Times New Roman than if it's in Arial, and again more likely if it's in Arial than if it's in Comic Sans. Courier lends a certain old school charm to techy-computery stuff, and certainly I use it in RPG handouts if I'm aiming at computer output of a certain age.

Get used to Arial if you're working for a British Research council - they force us to use 11 point Arial in all documents.

I normally use Times New Roman. The default setting for my Word documents seems to be Arial. I don't mind it, but I can fit more text into a message with Times New Roman, so I always change to that.

Hoovooloo has a point, up to the torture/gummy bear discussions. I'm against torture, having seen "Rendition"

The large size of Arial is precisely why the science research councils have foisted it upon us for research proposal documents.

Prior to their insistence on it - there was a lot of 'squeezing' that went on trying to fit the document into their 6 page maximum - this tended to involve using 8 point singly spaces Times New Roman, 0.5 cm margins etc.

This was rather unfair on those who had to actually read it so I can understand why they did this. They do actually offer alternative fonts to us now but they are all bigger than 11 point Arial - so they haven't really given us more choice

Different fonts are suitable for different things. There are some fonts which are perfect for headings, but would be unreadable in body text. Some, like the London 2012 Olympic font, are used primarily as design, in the logo itself. And it looks grand there, but reading a page of it would be painful. (In fact, it's not used even on short information signs: just in the logo.)

As a general rule, I prefer serifs on printed matter. Received wisdom from people more learned than I is that sans-serifs are easier to read on the screen. I personally don't care much.

I like fonts.

TRiG.

Is "Arial Narrow" an allowed option?

There are some fonts that look like a lot of fun, though I've neverplayed much with them:

Edwardian script
French script
Monotype Corsiva
Papyrus
Script MT Bold
Vivaldi

Papyrus was 'my' font on instant messengers for a couple of years. It was a bit different, and meantI could always see which posts were mine. These days the interfaces are better, so you don't need to do that.

Garamond apparently uses less printer ink than other typefaces, which makes it my font of choice.

B