Tuesday, March 19, 2024

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Book Review: Just My Type by Simon Garfield

August 4, 2015 by  
Filed under Blog, Featured, Potpourri

I had bought Just My Type: A Book About Fonts while waiting in Kings Cross waiting to get home. It’s a book that I’d been wanting to read for a while. I’ve been fascinated with fonts ever since the early Macs got me trying out new fonts. Now, I find myself mostly stuck in my […]

For want of a font

April 27, 2012 by  
Filed under Blog, Featured, Humor

If you think following the rules isn’t important, then consider the fate of the 203,238 people who signed a Michigan petition to put a referendum on the ballot in November. The two Republicans on the Board of State Canvassers voted against allowing the referendum to proceed to the ballot, deadlocking the Board 2-2. The reason […]

One space or two?

January 16, 2011 by  
Filed under Blog, Featured, Uncategorized, Writing

Russ Schumacher and I have been discussing the current online battle between those who advocate one space between sentences and two spaces. The debate started with Slate’s Farhad Manjoo, then was picked up by The Atlantic, citing Tom Lee. I have to admit that my typing instructor in seventh grade taught us to use two […]

Arial is a cheap imitation of Helvetica

February 16, 2010 by  
Filed under Blog, Posters, Presentations, Writing

While researching the book, I discovered this Web site proclaiming the glories of the sans serif font Helvetica and bemoaning the rise of Microsoft’s rip-off font Arial. As the Web page says about Arial replacing Helvetica, “To an experienced designer, it was like asking for Jimmy Stewart and getting Rich Little.” I have to admit […]

Why you should use sans serif fonts for figures, posters, and slides.

September 25, 2009 by  
Filed under Blog, Posters, Presentations

Serifs are those little vertical lines and flourishes at the ends of letters (like the vertical lines at the ends of the capital S or the horizontal line at the bottom of the lower-case r). Use sans serif fonts (Helvetica, Arial) because the near-uniform width of the strokes keeps the font readable when reduced in […]