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A Primer on Type

Observations and biases about fonts from working
in the field of digital typography.
If you have questions or would like to know more,
please contact me.
The three most common typefaces are:
1. Arial (Basterdization of Helvetica, a popular Swiss san serif typeface.

2. Times New Roman ( A standard serif face. Has several names. Like Arial, a default typeface.)

3. Courier (A monospace serif typeface, mimics a typewriter's output.)


These three typefaces have been designed for many languages - Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Western European. I had to work with them for years, so have developed a major distaste for them.

Instead of Times Roman or Courier, try Palatino Linotype, a beautifully designed typeface.

There are lots of san serif faces out there. I personally like Tahoma and Century Gothic, though I have found Arial to work fairly well vertically.

Decorative typefaces are generally not for text sizes. I wouldn't use them below 24 point.

Scripts - love them, I use them a lot. My favorite right now is "Learning Curve" which looks like a perfect form of cursive we learned in grade school.

Calligraphic - tend to be fancier than script, more thick/thin stroke contrast.

Be careful with free fonts! Some are designed pretty well, but others have irregular stroke width and poor spacing between letters. The standard fonts already on your computer from programs like Microsoft Word are generally well controlled for stroke width and spacing.

That's all for now.

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1 - 8 of 8

  • ZachP gold member
    October 13, 2008
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    For sans-serif typefaces, I also like Trebuchet MS, which I think provides some more character than Arial.

    For serif faces,I like both Georgia and Garamond -- except for Garamond italic, which I personally don't think looks so well.

    For an all-caps face, I like to use Trajan Pro, which I use for the masthead of my school newspaper, as well as some page highlights.

    For anybody looking for another font in the vein of Monotype Corsiva, I would recommend a font called "Zephyr", which is very famous as the title font for Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series of books. It's absolutely gorgeous, and has all but replaced Monotype Corsiva in my deisngs.


    • Freed by Mercy silver member
      October 13, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      I like Garamond also, but use Palatino more. Trajan refers to original Roman Caps, so I bet it is nice. I'll have to check out Zephyr. I'm not fond of Monotype Corsiva.

      The company I worked for bought Monotype, they're now known as Monotype Imaging.


  • -LilacThOughts- gold member
    April 23, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    Thanks for putting this together sis

    Very useful


  • FifthDove
    April 23, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    This is great sis, nice bits of info here


  • JeannieD Hunter gold member
    April 23, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    Cool! I like Tahoma too. Learning curve, hmm, I will have to find it! I wish this site would add more choices to the add poem page. This is awesome!! Proud of my Sis!


  • B Chandler
    April 23, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    whoohoooo.....you go girl!!


  • Little Eagle Greeters member
    April 23, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    Interesting Joyce

    I prefer Times New Roman myself, especially as it is required for college writing.

    • B Chandler
      April 23, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      I know Tammy....but the only other time I will use a different font is either when Im doing a name on a graphic or showing graphic sample/examples

1 - 8 of 8