Re: [OT] Recommended typefaces

On Sun, 21 May 2006 19:10:01 -0000, msb@xxxxxxx (Mark Brader) wrote:

Peter Moylan writes:
Font face seems to be a matter of personal preference.

Agreed; what follows is my opinion.

Standard practice seems to be to use sans-serif fonts for headings,
and serif fonts for body text, apparently on the grounds of readability.

I hate it when people do that. Serif and sans-serif fonts shouldn't
be mixed. Sans serif is fine for things like titles and slides where
there are only a few words on the page, or for fine-print tables where
people will only be reading a few words and not the whole table.

Otherwise, serif for everything, please. Boldface is what should be
used for headings.

But Mictosoft are doing their best to brainwash people otherwise.

My eyes must be different; as time goes by, I find myself struggling
more with serifs, so I now tend to use Helvetica or similar for
nearly everything.

I hate it when people do that.

I do it because most word processors nowadays default to Times New Roman as a
seif font, and I find a sans-serif one more readable except in narrow columns.

That is why i asked the question about a better serif font for wide columns.

I'll also left justify text wherever possible.

I take this to mean you like a ragged-right layout. In that case
I certainly hope you put extra leading between paragraphs. With
only a little indent on *one* side to mark a paragraph, they're
way too hard to see.

Fully justified text is OK if you don't use long words...

I say it's preferable, except in very narrow columns or when you're
using a monospaced font, the way you should be reading email or Usenet.

Fully justified is fine for books that are properly typeset, or documents
produced with word processors like XyWrite that can do microjustification, but
with braindead word processors like MS Word that can only do whole-space
justification, the result is both ugly and difficult to read, and the shorter
the columns, the uglier it gets.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: HP Test Page - Pattern Encoded in Cartridge?
    ... HP DeskJet 880C Series v11.1 Toolbox ... followed by a serif font alphabet with letters in descending font size ... After aligning the cartridge I printed a test page. ...
    (comp.periphs.printers)
  • Re: And things were going so well....
    ... His argument is basically "Verdana looks too big ... The problem is that authors who use Verdana almost always set their font ... san-serif for headings and serif ... Using a sans-serif, a serif, a sans-serif, and ...
    (comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets)
  • Re: LaTeX Font Warning: Font shape `OMS/cmss/m/n undefined
    ... >> Is there a way to get bold, italic serif, or a workaround for the same? ... Font encoding normally has nothing to do with the style (italic, ...
    (comp.text.tex)
  • Re: 1st sample
    ... Color contrast is too light. ... Your font for content is still only 80% of everyone's preferred size. ... Georgia is a serif font. ...
    (alt.html)
  • Re: Newbie Needs Help, Please! -- another one
    ... Most word processors fake missing bold and italic versions of fonts. ... but not with that particular font! ...
    (comp.graphics.apps.gimp)