Fontly Yours
July 17th, 2008Fontly Yours
Are You Loyal To Your Font?
Many years ago, back in the early days of selectable computer fonts, I had a decision to make…
What would be my primary font of choice?
To most people – or as I refer to them, “normal people” – this wouldn’t be much of an issue. Just select the font you like and go with it. But, that’s also how you end up with something retarded like Comic Sans MS as your default font.
And, let me tell you, I have received resumes from job applicants written using the Comic Sans MS font. They weren’t hired, nor considered.
But, I did spend a lot of time considering my default font back in the day. I quickly narrowed the possibilities down to Arial or Verdana, both of which were developed specifically for computers – and therefore better for display on monitors.
When I began web development, I finally chose Verdana for a number of reasons, with Arial as the backup font.
And everyone was happy for the next 15 years, with Verdana and me living together in harmony in the land of rainbows, unicorns, and free gasoline, blissfully happy with one another.
That is, until about a month ago.
For one reason or another, I have found myself using Arial more and more. I can’t put my finger on why that is though. But, with increasing frequency I’m finding myself selecting Arial instead of Verdana.
I feel guilty doing this behind Verdana’s back, after 15 years of loyalty. I feel dirty and cheap.
But I just can’t resist the temptations of Arial.
That irresitable slut.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I went through a “pick a font” period as well… I have a hard time deciding what my primary criteria would be… visuals or names… for a short while I liked Georgia, because, well… that’s where I’m from and it’s a nice font. I also went with Times New Roman for a while, cause it’s DEFAULT… so I figured hey… it must be considered a good one if it’s DEFAULT, but then one day a friend contacted me with a serif intervention. He informed me that serifified fonts just aren’t as readable on the web and that it showed my amatuerism, so I took a good hard LOOK, and ultimately decided on Verdana as you did.
Really, I’m not sure what you’re thinking with this flirtation with Arial… it’s generally fine for standard text, but weak when it comes to headings.