Sunday Seven: Feelings About Fonts

To post is better than to not post. Hey, I’m outta town visiting my parents since Thursday – whaddya want from my life? In any case, here’s my contribution to previously-mentioned Patrick’s present Sunday Seven question:

Here’s a list of the 7 top typefaces used by graphic design professionals.

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
Rank your seven favorite typefaces listed in the article linked above.

I noticed that in the article referenced, the word “professional” is printed in quotation marks, which I take to mean that the ranking and perceived professionalism are a matter of the original author’s opinion. I’m willing to take his word for it. Here, then, are the seven fonts in order of my own personal preference (click on the image of for a larger view with more examples of the corresponding font):

1. Garamond was one I was very glad to see on the “top 7″ list, because if it hadn’t been I would have been tempted to dismiss the whole thing. To get right to the heart of the matter, I’m a serif guy (see also: numbers 2 and 3 in this ranking), and Garamond is the paragon of, um… serif-ness, in my opinion. I love Garamond because it reminds me of reading the hardcover edition of a good book. I’d publish my whole blog with it as the primary font, but last time I checked it wasn’t among the 6 or so fonts that are considered truly “web-safe,” i.e., it might not render the same in all the most common browser/OS combinations found in the wild. Damn old ladies with Win2000 and IE5, still ruining it for everybody…

2. Bodoni comes in at number 2 of this seven, riding the wave of my serif affinity. Bodoni’s a little more ordinary-looking than my man Garamond, but comfy nonetheless.

3. Trajan. Or, I suppose I should say TRAJAN, in honor of its all-caps all-the-time ethos. Complete candor moment: I feel like a cretin because when I read the “top 7″ article this is based upon and saw the font and name “Trajan,” the first association into my head was this guy rather than this guy.

4. Bickham Script Pro is one for which I can’t post an example image, because I can’t find one whose copyright allows me to do so. Maybe it would be fair use, but whatever – if you click on my placeholder image you’ll see what it looks like on another site. Anyway, I like script fonts the same way I like most old-fashionedey-looking stuff. The original article says that Bickham Script Pro is good for stuff like formal inscriptions and wedding invitations, which seems about right. Script fonts are pretty when used properly, but you don’t want to hand in your thesis printed in Bickham Script. Better that than Vivaldi, though (more on that after the list).

5. Frutiger may be sans-serif, but I like the sound of the word “Frutiger.” It just sounds like it should be pronounced with a strong German accent, almost as if there were an umlaut over the “u.” I know, I know, if they’d meant it to be pronounced that way they would have spelled it that way – “Frütiger” – but I don’t care, it’s fun to say. Go on, say it – you know you want to.

6. Futura is about waist-deep in the inherent uninterestingness of sans-serif fonts. Personal taste thing? Absolutely, and my personal taste is that sans-serif is sans personality.

7. Helvetica is BOR-ING. I think it’s second only to the ubiquitous Arial in its yawn-inducing potency. I guess the best you can say about it is that it’s inoffensive and nondescript, which for some things can be what is needed. But do you really want to be one of those things? Loving Helvetica or Arial would be like if your favorite ice cream flavor was vanilla. Dear God, take a chance!

One thing I noticed is that most (if not all) of the seven fonts aren’t freely available. They may be the fonts professional graphic designers use, but I ain’t paying money for the ones that didn’t come with my laptop. Not when there are thousands of free fonts to be had at sites like DaFont and 1001FreeFonts. I guess that means I’m not a professional graphic designer, but of course I already knew that.

To follow up on my earlier reference to the Vivaldi font – check out another blogger’s scathing run-down of The 7 Worst Fonts. I wouldn’t change a single item on her list. I look forward to a brighter day sometime in the future when we are all finally spared from the scourge of Comic Sans MS.

What about it, people? Any ‘foughts ’bout fonts? Type ‘em into a comment, and rest assured that they’ll end up in the nice pleasant Georgia typeface of the rest of this blog.