An excellent screen font

TorS wrote on 4/30/2004, 12:29 AM

Some of you, who read typographic news (all 3 of you) knows 
that the US government has replaced Courier New 12 with 
Times Modern 14 as its official font. 



See this article.



All the more reason for us to use Courier New. It is actually 
very well suited to the screen because it reads well and 
it designs well, too. Soon it may even be seen as 
anti-american.

Here's to Courier New!

Tor

Comments

mark2929 wrote on 4/30/2004, 2:18 AM

After reading the news Story AND Looking at the Fine Print ! I have to say I prefer good old Courier 12. Much more Curvier and relaxing on the eye.

VOGuy wrote on 4/30/2004, 3:09 AM

When I read a narration script, I find that Courier is MUCH easier to read. While Times Roman looks better on the printed page, I make far fewer mistakes reading from a Courier new script. Worse is Helvetica/Arial. FAX copy is almost impossible to read - any typeface, even a good quality fax. Then there's handwritten scripts, and then you get the "creative" writer who loves to use unusual fonts....

Travis
Travis Voice Services - www.Announcing.biz

barleycorn wrote on 4/30/2004, 6:19 AM

I have to say I can't understand your recommendation of Courier as a face for general use:

1. Why would you want all your text to look like the product of a typewriter? Of course occasionally this is exactly what one wants but it's hardly appropriate for most subjects.

2. Is Courier really that legible? Consider what monospaced fonts are used for typically nowadays: code samples, the HTML code, pre and tt tags, serial numbers, OCR, spreadsheet or other tabular data... They're used precisely when the text is to be read as a string of individual characters rather than as words and sentences.

3. Monospaced fonts (for anyone who doesn't know, characters in a monospaced font all have the same width - an i occupies the same space as an m or w) are incredibly greedy in terms of the width they occupy.

If people vaguely like the look of a face like Courier I suggest they investigate 'slab serif' faces like Serifa, ITC Officina, or the rather wonderful PMN Caecilia.

bakerbud9 wrote on 4/30/2004, 6:28 AM

For monospace fonts, my personal favorite is Lucidia Console 10pt. I think it has all the good qualities of Courier, but it has a more "modern" look. Courier 12pt is still great for scripts, though.
In terms of non-monospace fonts, my fave is Verdana 10pt.
-nate

barleycorn wrote on 4/30/2004, 8:04 AM

> In terms of non-monospace fonts, my fave is Verdana 10pt

Yes, that would work really well setting a line from Baudelaire or Hölderlin...

It's ridiculous to recommend Verdana without any context. It's like saying your favourite colour is red.

bakerbud9 wrote on 4/30/2004, 10:22 PM

my favorite color is red.
my favorite food is spaghetti.
my favorite dog is wiemaraner.
my favorite newscaster is christine romans
my favorite car is volkswagen.
my favorite sport is fencing.
my favorite font is verdana.
you're a dork.
-nate

barleycorn wrote on 5/1/2004, 2:04 AM

You've spelled Weimaraner incorrectly. Also, it's Lucida Console not 'Lucidia Console'.

mark2929 wrote on 5/1/2004, 2:26 AM

I dont care What anyone thinks I like mistral !

FuTz wrote on 5/1/2004, 3:25 AM

Well, I like poutine (NOT the russian one...)

MisterPat wrote on 5/1/2004, 5:10 AM

My favorite color is plaid.
My favorite font is Wingdings 2

. . . and I care!

RickGB wrote on 5/1/2004, 10:51 AM

I like Gill Sans (used by the BBC too). Also Zurich (extended, condensed etc). Arial black is pretty good and so is Impact. On the whole serif typefaces like courier don't work well on TV. The twiddly bits at the corners can shimmer with an interlaced picture or disappear when keyed over.

TorS wrote on 5/1/2004, 11:08 AM

On the whole serif typefaces like courier don't work well on TV.

That's a large statement. Would you care to explain it?
Tor

RickGB wrote on 5/1/2004, 1:13 PM

Thin lines like the serifs on characters don't display well on an interlaced screen. They tend to shimmer (depending on the size) or they disappear on text that is keyed. Less of a problem on large text.

But don't take my word for it, just consider when you last saw a serif typeface used on TV... :-)

TorS wrote on 5/1/2004, 3:08 PM

If you make a distinction between serifs and slabs I think you'll find that the problem you describe concerns serif fonts and that Courier New belongs to the slab fonts. On a TV screen small text is in trouble whatever the font. But I agree, serifs more so than the others. Courier New is no worse on a TV than Gill Sans. (Funny it's called that, because there is no Gill Serif - to my knowledge.)
Tor

bowman01 wrote on 5/2/2004, 7:54 AM

Verdana is actually an excellent on-screen font. And is the only font mentioned in this whole thread to be designed for screen. The fonts courier new and times new roman are hardly a good choice for on-screen use.

Serifs do make a difference when it comes to screen use particularly when outputting to interlaced screens and mixed pixel dimensions unless of course they have been specifically designed for on screen use such as the font Georgia.

Both Verdana and Georgia have similar x-heights but natually there leading are quite different. The heavier stroke on Georgia allows emphasis on the font's essential ability to decifer the letter with ease on screen with the luxury of having serifs. On screen serifs can try to emulate natural hand written mild script styling but i think the rigidness of a viewers reading pattern on screen do not permit that much.

Larger counters in fonts designed for on screen allow for easy word decifering but there is always the inherent problem of allowing screen light through which can be fatiging compared to paper print outs.

Anyways, thought i might just add my 2 cents

winrockpost wrote on 5/3/2004, 6:54 AM

................Soon it may even be seen as anti-american.

...........Here's to Courier New!

F U