Maybe it's because my handwriting sucks, but for some reason, fonts (yes, typefaces) have always been a fascination for me, even though they may seem like the most boring thing on the earth to most people. A beautifully designed font, properly used, can make such a huge difference in the presentation of an essay or article.
This was why I was so interested to read this New York Times article talks about a new font that has been designed for use on the US highway signage system. It's amazing just how much work goes into designing a new font and making it usable. The entire article is very long, but there's an accompanying slideshow that's worth a look at if you don't want to read through the entire article.
I probably should put this into part of my HCI class.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
A New Font for the Highway
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2 comments:
I like this clearview font. I always thought there are ways to make the letters more readable without making them larger.
It makes me cringe when people put Times fonts on powerpoint slides without thinking. I don't like it in the first place. Secondly, it is just harder to read than most other fonts from a distance.
Times does have an advantage -- it takes up a lot less space on the page.
But you're right, it doesn't belong on Powerpoint slides. It's far too fancy for something like that.
Helvetica is the one that I really don't like. Documents written in it look too much like one long email for my liking.
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