Thanks John. Well yes, Arial is just too.... Arial.

I have the excellent Printer's Apprentice software so previewing isn't a problem.

Calibri is pretty nice and the bold version is pretty chunky without being too bold. I'm also drawn to TektonPro, although I want something more formal for this project really.

It's for an underwater wildlife documentary. Really looking for something traditional and with serifs, but that is at odds with uniform lineweights.

I'll go look at what the BBC uses on their nature stuff. I wonder what typical Hollywood blockbusters use.

i played with endless fonts on any number of productions, and always ended up san serif.

that said, i often use 'display' fonts, such as comic sans, cooper, etc., but try to avoid any fine line fonts, which most serifs tend to be.

MyriadPro SemiBold was looking perfect, but blummin' Vegas can't access it.

Looking like a choice between Calibri bold and Univers 65 at the moment.

John, do you use Arial bold or just regular?

Nick Myriad Pro is a very clean and legible typeface. is it just the Semi bold that you are having a problem with?. I have bold and light etc in Vegas text and Pro Type Titler no problem.

"that said, i often use 'display' fonts, such as comic sans..."This is somewhat off-topic (apologies, Nick), but I once used Comic Sans is some of my work. My (early 20s) daughter jumped all over me on this - "Comic Sans is so un-cool." - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11582548What's so wrong with Comic Sans?[/link]

...Jerry (the un-cool)

interesting (and somewhat truthful) article...

however 'un-cool' it might be it works well as a 'casual', easily read, problem free font clearly understood as an 'informal' approach.

more than once in the past i've had clients asking to use certain fonts that might look good on paper, even perhaps a pc screen, but absolutely appalling when view on interlaced screen.

i think a couple of the letters following the article pick up on it's 'usefulness'

as it is, i mostly stick to arial - after all, i want my audience to read what's written on screen, not give me plaudits as a typographer....

Leslie,

I hope you didn't read my post of being critical of what you've done. I was just trying to relate a somewhat humorous story about me & my daughter.

I still like Comic Sans - even if my daughter & the Internet don't.

...Jerry (still un-cool)

Stick with simple and easy to read, unless there's a specific point to not do that.

Every read a book in a thin line horizontal thin font? I've tried, it's horrible. Because it's not the "norm". It's a credit roll, nobody (and I mean NOBODY) is going to see it unless they want to read it, and that needs to be as easy as possible.

A solution to the judders is to render a separate mpeg-2 in progressive and have your movie point to that file when it's done. I've never really had judder issues though, I'm assuming because I pick boring, easy to read fonts.

I use Verdana for mine Nick.

But it isn't fancy. It's just relatively easy to read.

John

@ jerry - of course not - it was/is a very interesting article and very pertinent to the op.

i can assure you i'd use a tacky page-turn wipe, a rotating cube with a different video on every face, a truly 'garish' lower third, etc., if it worked in context of what was needed.

my regular 'corporate' clients don't want bling, bells and whistles, etc., what they want is their message putting across clearly and simply and in a style acceptable and ledgible to all. i have on occasions suggested some 'perk' that might 'liven' things up, but in general i fully understand their insistence that they are NOT mtv, with an audience capable of reading grunge or graffiti fonts ;-)

For the last several years, my company has needed several original symbols and fonts. I was fortunate to find Steve Jackaman of International Type Founders. He is a font genius, an old timer, very creative, and can help you with any font questions you might have. He knows so much and is so passionate about fonts that the conversations can be quite lengthy. I think he is British (accent), but lives in the United States. He is a good resource.

His company will also digitize your logo or any graphic into a font. This allows you to simply "type" your logo into a document as text.

Should you ever contact him, tell him I said hello. By the way, I have no connection except as a very satisfied repeat customer.

Barry Hull


His contact info:

Steve Jackaman — Man of Letters™
International TypeFounders, Inc.

“Specialists in all facets of corporate typeface design, licensing, logo and font production”

tel: 610 584 7233 | email: itfinc@verizon.net

http://www.HouseofType.com

My go-to, easy to read on screen (serif) font is Lucida Fax.

I'v struggled with the same issue as you. I often do not like san serif fonts (sometimes, they're perfect, just not always). I prefer Garamond or Palatino for my printed text documents (which I produce in my day job).

What drew me to Lucida Fax was the "fax" part of it. I might be inferring way too much here, but I think that this font was designed to be readable on... a fax. As I'm old enough to remember, faxes often had the problem that the receiving fax machine might be of relatively low resolution. Thus, a good font was needed to overcome the problem that the received fax could be difficult to read. This font seems to hold up well to down-scaling, as I suspect it was intended to. This makes it a very nice serif font for things like credits, in my opinion.

I'm pretty sure I used it on this video: (not a hyperlink, since I didn't want it to embed):

Oh dear, I used Comic Sans almost exclusively for the first half of the last decade. You've put me off Tekton and its similar quirkiness.

Rory, I just thought that the semi-bold variant of Myriad Pro added a bit of extra weight without making it too dazzling like the true bold. Anyway it doesn't show up in Vegas, so one would have to do it in Photohop and import.

So I've ended up with regular MyriadPro in a mixture of 16 and 18 point and I think it's going to be an improvement on Palatino Linetype.

Thanks for all the feedback. In the meantime...

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"MyriadPro SemiBold was looking perfect, but blummin' Vegas can't access it."

Vegas uses whatever fonts you have installed in Windows. Look in C:\Windows\Fonts to see if it is installed.

I'll second Verdana. It was designed to be easily readable on a screen.

Also, I've done many rolling credits, and it's very hard to find the "sweet spot" where the letters don't appear to be full of wiggly worms (due to interlace). The solution for me is to soften the graphics slightly with the Quick Blur FX. It makes the hard text edges just a bit softer and greatly reduces the wiggle effect.

I also apply the same amount of blur to static text just so that it looks the same as the rolling credits.

Steve, it's installed but isn't accessible by Vegas. I assume this is because, while a bold font is accessed by clicking the bold "B", there is nothing ("SB") to click for semibold. i.e. The problem is that it's part of the MyriadPro family. Maybe I can trick Windows into thinking the semibold variant is the regular variant of a different font family. I'll check that out. (edit: didn't work) (Edit: I finally discovered that semi-bold seems to be just the bold variant of a "light" font. For example I can make Myriad Pro semi-bold by using Myriad Pro Light in Vegas and making it bold.)

To everyone, regarding flickering, wiggly worms etc.. Making the credits roll at 480 lines per 480 frames really works! It just takes a bit of maths on the calculator.