Four funny fonts films

If you are interested in typography (which you should be) and even if you think you're not, you need to watch the History of Type - an Animated Short by Ben Barrett-Forrest. It covers everything from Gutenberg's original Blackletter typeface to creating your own fonts on a computer - all in 5 minutes 10 seconds.  Brilliantly done - and funny too.

It joins my list of all time favourite typography shorts. These include the excellent tribute to Neutra Face by Lady Gaga. "You can read my Neutra Face, (even when it's bold italics)" to the tune of Poker Face. Stirring stuff.

Then there is the fonts conference with typefaces given human personalities. Baskerville is 'a shrivelled bastard,' Futura a space girl and Century Gothic a modern goth with attitude. Only problem is that it's Comic Sans who saves the day. What are they trying to tell us?
This video led to my family recognising people they knew by their typographical traits. I like to think I'm a cross between Utopia Bold and Avant Garde. My kids think I'm more Goudy Heavyface and my wife definitely likes to think of me as Minion. Which one are you?

From the same stable, CollegeHumor, is the fight to the death between Helvetica's gang and Arial's gang. Watch it here.  "Arial. I haven't seen you since you cloned me and stole my identity. I've been waiting for this day for 26 years." This time, though, Comic Sans reverts to type.
It all serves as a reminder that typography isn't just for geeks ... it's fascinating and it's funny. Really.

If fonts were dogs ...

Ha! Comic Sans getting more stick (previous post). Thought this was quite clever though ... made me smile. Originals here and here.

Type comparison 2 - sans headline faces

One of our Irish clients has been in touch, looking to change their sports page headline font from Franklin Gothic. The key question in any such change, of course, is why? Do they want:

• A more economical face (a better count)
• Clearer legibility
• Stronger display
• Something more modern
• A different font from another title or from other sections
• A brand change?

Anyway, in order to help them consider which font they might go for, we have prepared another typechart. This one is for sans display faces for newspapers. There are of course different weights for all those listed, except Impact. If you would like a higher res PDF than the jpgs above, let me know on petersands@mistral.co.uk and I will send you a copy. The previous typechart for newspaper body copy fonts can be found here.

Body copy comparison - Times v Nimrod

Had a call from the Halifax Courier's Tim Robinson this week asking about body copy. Tim is a self-confessed Times New Roman junkie but was asking about accessible alternatives. "Please don't say Nimrod - to me it looks as up-to-date as the ad for Worthington E," he added. Times New Roman is OK if used properly. It has served newspapers well, commissioned specifically for The Times newspaper in 1931 (although even The Times doesn't use it any more). Times and Times New Roman have a smaller x-height than many other serifs and have thin strokes and hairlines, so has a tendency to break up if used too small on newsprint. I regularly see research which says readers find a newspaper difficult to read - and more often than not it is Times or Times New Roman used at 8.5pt or under and across too narrow a measure. As it has a small x-height you don't really need to lead it, just use it bigger. Nimrod is certainly ubiquitous and hardly at the cutting edge of design but it is functional and readable. Clarion is very similar to Nimrod. News Miller and News 701 are very readable. If economy is more important, ITC Cheltenham works well. Newspapers tend not to be awash with great off-the-shelf serifs ... some of the most stylish fonts, such as Poynter and Gulliver, can be costly. And not many newspapers are in the business of buying in new fonts these days. I put the above chart together for Tim which compares common text faces and specifically looks at Nimrod v Times New Roman. It's a jpg but if you would like a better quality PDF drop me an email on petersands@mistral.co.uk and I will send you one.

Don't go back to the bad times

Here is a worrying typographical development - a comparison of fonts and how much ink they use. It works by using Arial as the base at 100% and gives a bigger or smaller percentage to other fonts. Why worrying? Times Roman comes in at 71% ...  one of the most economic. Having spend much of my life successfully persuading newspapers to stop using Times as their body copy, what's the betting that men in suits will now decide it is the best face after all? Times uses less ink because it has a small x-height and it has upstrokes and downstrokes too thin, at smaller sizes, for the ink to cling on to - certainly on newsprint. Less ink often just means less legibility. If you are faced with a manager who suddenly becomes a typographic expert overnight, explain that there is only one serif on the list and that your Nimrod/ Clarion/Gulliver/Miller /Poynter or whatever actually uses even less ink. A total lie of course ... but I can guarantee he won't know. 

Top 100 typefaces

Thanks to Times of Malta journalist Veronica Stivala for sending this periodic table for typography. The fonts are ranked in popularity from 1-100, plus names of designers, date of origination and family. No prizes for guessing what is No 1.

Buy a font and help Haiti

A new font has been created for Font Aid IV to benefit the people of Haiti. The font is made up only of ampersands - to represent people coming together to help each other. It only costs $20, less than £13. If every newspaper and magazine bought the font it would make a real difference. Details are at Typesociety. ALL proceeds go to  Doctors Without Borders

Fonts funny

Clever typography sketch ... captures the personalities of the fonts pretty well. Century Gothic is perfect. Baskerville doesn't have a leg to stand on! Not sure about Comic Sans being the hero though. Font conference