Re: Reasons not to use the Courier font

[Arlen P Walker <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com>]

 >We are presentation crazy these
>days. I believe the world could get by with about 4 fonts, instead of
>400,000 and growing. I would take Courier with me to a desert island.

I just went through the exercise of cleaning up ad organizing the fonts on my 
machine. (I had over 1000; I had never counted them before, they just sort of 
arrived there and never left -- the fonts who came to dinner.) I definitely 
didn't manage to get down to 4, but the final total was significantly less than 
I started with. Among the "essential" ones I kept was "Gill Sans" (for you 
Arial fans, my apologies, but I consider it an Abomination and a Drag -- I kept 
it only to maintain compatibility with the Windows users who can be excused for 
Not Understanding) as I do 90% of my print sans-serif work in it. (For web work 
the font choice is less wonderful; there are no excellent web fonts, only a 
handful of acceptable ones.)

In principle I quite agree. Aside from Gill, I like Caslon and Baskerville, and 
could probably be content with those three for the majority of my work.

But the problem is (and this forms the reason for the 400,000 and growing) that 
each of us would pick a different set of four absolutely crucial fonts. 
Obviously, no one's choice of fonts is nearly as intelligent nor as tasteful as 
mine, so you should all immediately cease using the fonts you have chosen in 
your ignorance and instead bask in the brilliance of my choices. All other 
fonts should be abolished. (There now, was the trowel big enough this time to 
set off your humor detector? It's so hard to be subtle in an email!)

I recall one of the previous times the "to serif or not to serif" question came 
around someone quoted studies showing that Europeans preferred sans-serif, 
while US folks preferred serifs. For this manual, the operative question is: 
"who will be reading it?" If you want to battle the font choice (and sometimes 
there are good reasons to do so; I don't know enough about this case to say if 
this is one of them) then check survey figures which cover the intended 
audience. I can toss my opinions on this in with everyone else's here, but the 
simple truth is, on this issue, none of our opinions is worth the life of the 
electrons which bring them to you. If you can't find survey figures (the 
temptation is to say you're not looking hard enough, but we'll avoid that) then 
create some of your own by asking members of the existing audience. (Not having 
a 1000-page book set in Courier on my shelf, I feel safe in assuming I am not 
part of this audience. Believe me, I'd remember a book like that!) When it 
comes to fonts, opinions are like feet: everyone has two and they all stink.


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.