I am marking papers, and I have to say that it makes an astonishing difference how something is formatted. A text moves from being an indigestible lumpen mass to something that you can move through, something that has space for the reader.
For the record, I prefer Georgian font, size 11 with a 1.15 spacing. There also need to be indents at the beginnings of the paragraphs or, on a computer, a space between paragraphs. Though, interestingly, I am not overly disturbed by the default font on the blog. Probably that nasty ariel that microsoft loves so much.
Here it is in Ariel:
No, really. For a designer, this post is a big fat DUH!!!!
I am marking papers, and I have to say that it makes an astonishing difference how something is formatted. A text moves from being an indigestible lumpen mass to something that you can move through, something that has space for the reader.
For the record, I prefer Georgian font, size 11 with a 1.15 spacing. There also need to be indents at the beginnings of the paragraphs or, on a computer, a space between paragraphs. Though, interestingly, I am not overly disturbed by the default font on the blog. Probably that nasty ariel that microsoft loves so much.
It makes such a difference, honestly. Such a difference to the reading experience.
Don't you love books that tell you at the back what font they were printed in and some of the history of the font too?
5 comments:
Yes, I love being told about what font a book is in. It shows an extra layer of the love that went into making the book.
Now you've got me thinking about changing the blog font! I plead laziness for its current Ariel appearance.
For the blog, I don't think I ever payed attention too much to the font. I think it's Georgia, on mine, but not 100% sure. I've often wondered the font that the books I read were in (and I don't recall it being printed on the back either), because it always *is* very legible and nice :). Only thing that really bother me, typography-wise, is Comic Sans abuse, as well as ill-advised color choices (purple italic text on a black background...)
Readability and legibility are something which all too few people pay attention to. I hate black backgrounds with inadequate contrast between the text and background. I prefer a serif fount to a sans serif like Ariel because I find them more pleasing.
JG, I too, out of laziness go with ariel on the blog most often as it is the default setting, but i don't like it much, and I agree, it is like another level of love and care has gone into the book, and another level of interest in and respect for the reader that it is printed as well. Like they know we are sensitive and intelligent enough to both notice and be interested in these details.
ElP, A lot of people HATE comic sans, almost enough to make me want to use it. I don't find it as offensive as its reputation would have me believe.....I am surprised that you've never seen that notice, maybe the French never do it, but you read fairly widely in English too, don't you? I am trying to think if those notices appear more often in the hard back version, which may (or may not) account for your not seeing one.
Helen, the serifs are nicer to look at and I think they do make the writing clearer....Ariel is clean and neat but also bland boring and faintly robotic looking to me. The hand of a writer is completely gone.
I wouln't say I HATE Comic Sans ;). But usually, I see it used in conjunction with stupid generic icons, in company memos, using aggressive color schemes. That's why I said "Comic Sans abuse" :). And out of curiosity I grabbed a couple of books. It seems that English (maybe also Canadian) editions *do* feature the type almost systematically. And almost all the ones I have in French do *not* feature any type information... Odd. I wonder what typefaces the Kindle and other eReaders use...
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