Microsoft Bob
It’s one of those detail things in life that drive some of us nuts; for others, they never even really notice.
I’ve pointed out to colleagues:
Your draft looks good, but you do know, right, that you’ve used two different fonts here…
Typically, I can already hear the response:
“Oh, really? I had never noticed? I wonder how that happened!”
This is the person that doesn’t know, doesn’t care, and the extreme version is someone who cannot tell the difference between sans-serif and serif fonts.
I have also come to the realization that I might be the unique one here. Sure, there are other colleagues who might profess to have a favorite font, or two.
Oh, John, you like fonts? My favorites are Arial, Helvetica, and Comic Sans!
When I hear that, I slowly begin to dissolve into a pile of goopy matter (for our high school chemistry teacher told us that “rain” could never melt us, and so we should say dissolve).
So, it was with great interest that once again, someone had linked to this post about the Microsoft font, Comic Sans.
Those of you who know me well know that I cannot stand this font. I am a member of a big club, I know. While the creator of this font in the link above defends his font in the end, only because Apple “copies” it, the first half seems awfully apologetic, to me.
It’s also another tony example of Microsoft just shoving a bunch of stuff in a package and putting it “out there.” No matter that some of those fonts stunk (like a skunk), we now all know the names and have to deal with them in memos, signs, and bake sale labels (Arial, can you hear me sing your name?).
So, to tell if you’re a fontista (a totally made-up word suggesting someone who knows their fonts), see if you can tell the difference between Example A, and Example B.
Example A
Example B
Example B is the typeface chosen for this webpage; however, because it’s not very popular, you probably see A. Both are related, however. The first is Palatino by Hermann Zapf (creator of the famous Dingbats font). The second is also by Zapf, called Aldus. Aldus is thinner and taller; you can think of Palatino as the everyday, for books version of Aldus. And then Microsoft stole it in their rip-off version, called Book Antiqua.
My font rant is over for the day. Thanks for reading.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I know I’m the one who never notices the different fonts in documents, but I did see it in your example. I probably noticed the least important detail, the shape of the dots over the i.
And why isn’t there some sort of “font patent” taking care of all this??
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Bea: Fonts are protected creative works, if that’s what you’re asking. That’s actually a very big reason why you see relatively few fonts on the Internet.
Much font love to you, John, from another typography aficionado. I subscribe to the idea that people who don’t pay a lot of attention to fonts tend to use very extreme fonts because they can see the difference. Have you seen http://fontgame.ilovetypography.com ?
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
We occasionally have applicants for our ITRT positions who submit resumes in Comic Sans. For that alone, I sorely want to reject them out of hand but my boss insists we read and evaluate the content of the application.
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Tim:
What would possess anyone to use Comic Sans on a… resume?
It’s a rhetorical question; I’ve seen those before, too. I’ve heard some refer to Comic Sans as “the teacher’s font.” What?
I’ll have to follow up with some more font posts in the future…
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
And I think I could get at least 31 if I tried again…
Thanks, Dave.
May 24th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Maybe this lack of font knowledge should be remedied by addressing it in a media literacy class. There are times when personal preference needs to be superseded by professionalism.
Just as Comic Sans bothers John, what bothers me are the fake script signatures on emails. Who do they think they’re fooling? And in hot pink and neon green to boot.