Looking for a better typeface

slacy wrote on 7/11/2006, 10:54 PM
If I have to use Arial one more time for a basic title, I'm going to shoot myself. Does anyone know of some nice professional typefaces that can really lend a high-end sheen to a small production (something other than the basic uninspiring collection of Windows fonts like Tahoma, Lucida, Georgia, etc.). And if you do know of a great typeface, where might I find it?

For context, I'm just look for a strong conservative typeface that screams "professional." Mostly white text on black background. Any ideas out there?

Comments

Grazie wrote on 7/11/2006, 11:39 PM
What a lot of people fail to experiment with is the actual spacing or Tracking of each character. This is easily done within the "simple" Text Media Generator under the Properties tab.

The other option is to use 3-D Track Motion to further change the "look" of those hackneyed and over used fonts.

Failing the above - then:

* Atilla

* Bangle

* Chalk

.. oh yes . .

* Trebuchet MS ( Excellent! . . recently was told that it got its name because it was thought that it was SO good that it would knock down walls - as per the rock slinging machine used by the Romans)

And yes, I know exactly what you mean though. But do try using and experimenting with other ways of smashing these fonts about. DO try the 3-D ways to Squash 'N Squish them about. Also use small but effective tiny whole word animation thru' TM or Pan/Crop. Also use the Text Generated Media timelines and key-frames to adjust and animate. I use the Loop editing method to preview my changes. Kinda gets over the non-Synch of the main timeline.

Creating THE look through fonts and the appropriate style of credits is a real art form. When done well it is astounding. My favourites have been: The Practice; "7"; "ER"; "Pink Panther"; . . . . too many.



Spelling correction - "Trebuchet".
Spot|DSE wrote on 7/11/2006, 11:42 PM
Trebuchet
Verdana
Dax
Neuropolitical

are a few of what we regularly use.

HTH
NickHope wrote on 7/12/2006, 12:07 AM
myfonts.com is an excellent font resource.

Adobe fonts are class too.

Trebuchet was a great tip. It's already in my system too. Maybe it comes with Windows.

Nick
slacy wrote on 7/12/2006, 2:06 AM
Thanks, all good suggestions. But I still can't find that bold, professional, san-serify type font you might see on MSNBC or the like. Perhaps Grazie is right that you must really play around with them to get a truly professional look.
farss wrote on 7/12/2006, 3:34 AM
Most of the really good fonts cost money, some of them lots of it, some of the very good ones are not for sale, period.

I'm kind if amazed at the number of posts about why you can't have the music from Titanic in your corporate video when who'd want to anyway, yet fonts which we all could use cannot be bought.

And I'm getting the feeling that font piracy is as big an issue as music piracy. Whic raises the interesting question of how close does one font have to be to another one before you breach copyright?

Bob.
Former user wrote on 7/12/2006, 6:00 AM
I bought a disk several years that had something like 1000 fontstyles. Anytime I load a program, it loads fonts. Any card design program or Business card program will come with hundreds of fonts.

Fonts are easy to get, and there are even some free font design programs. Those take some time but you can make a custom look.

Dave T2
plasmavideo wrote on 7/12/2006, 6:36 AM
The various incarnations of Swiss 721
farss wrote on 7/12/2006, 7:13 AM
If you know someone with a Mac you can, ahem, 'borrow' some nice ones from them.
Grazie wrote on 7/12/2006, 7:14 AM
Plas! That's a super looking item - SWISS 721? Very smart looks like an anorexic Helvetica. Yes, I like that one. What IS the "other" name for Switzerland? . .Now, hmmm.. let me think . . ?
Former user wrote on 7/12/2006, 9:07 AM
I had an ad agency client that needed to match their fonts exactly for a batch of spots. I purchased the needed fonts from myfonts.com and have used them for some recent projects and really find them very useful: Myriad Pro for sans serif and Caslon for serif.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 7/12/2006, 9:22 AM

Futura is a nice one to use, too. We use it often.


Dan Sherman wrote on 7/12/2006, 10:15 AM

Abadi MT Condensed
Brush Script
Britannic Bold (named after Grazie!)
Helvectica (full figured one)
Gill Sans
Impact

Also Vegas is very weak in the text department.
May want to try Cayman Graphics,---good selection of fine fonts for text there with still, roll and crawl capablities.
Jayster wrote on 7/12/2006, 11:14 AM
If you don't have good titling tools, you can also do some fairly interesting stuff with Photoshop. Drop shadows, blurs, gradients etc. (Much of which Vegas does.) Setting the smoothness of the text so it doesn't look jaggy, that kind of thing. Not an easy way to go, though. But it least the transparency is quick to get into the output (i.e. in png, pict, or targa).
Former user wrote on 7/12/2006, 11:25 AM
If you are using Photoshop, you can save it as a PHOTOSHOP file and import into vegas. You don't need to save as PNG or TARGA.

The advantage is that you can re-open the Photo in photoshop and make changes and Vegas will auto update the image.

Dave T2
birdcat wrote on 7/12/2006, 11:39 AM
Bangle is the generic version of Benguiat (as is Bangkok) - one of my favorite fonts.

There's also Palatino, Century Schoolbook, Comic Sans, Franklin Gothic, Univers, Frutiger, Goudy Old Style, University Roman for wedding stuff, many more. I use lots of fonts and try to match the font I choose to the mood of the video - sometimes using decorative fonts when the whimsy strikes. I figure, just as long as it looks good, matches the mood and the average person can read it without freezeing the frame!

There are may sources for good fonts for free - Find what suits your needs and personal likes. Also, many software packages come with really nice fonts (Corel Draw came with scads of 'em) so look to see what came with the software you already have!
baysidebas wrote on 7/12/2006, 12:13 PM
Gill Sans, also known as Hammersmith, is my favorite, hands down. It's the official typeface for signs on the London Underground.
Jayster wrote on 7/12/2006, 12:50 PM
DaveT2 - of course we will downres our huge digital camera files to something reasonable for video (and with correct PAR & luminance levels).. My question is, if you have a bunch of stills and you keep them in native photoshop format, will they be a resource hog in Vegas (i.e. eat up gobs of memory)? Is it better to flatten the image files once you have them exactly as you want it? Or does it not really matter? I haven't tried using native psd files yet. It's good info, thanks.
RexA wrote on 7/12/2006, 1:08 PM
>Gill Sans, also known as Hammersmith, is my favorite, hands down. It's the official typeface for signs on the London Underground.<

Seems to also be called Humanist 521
deusx wrote on 7/12/2006, 2:26 PM
I see Futura has been mentioned already, but that is a very good alternative to "bold, professional, regular" fonts.
MarkWWW wrote on 7/12/2006, 2:43 PM
In fact the London Underground typeface isn't Gill, though many of the letter forms are very similar to those in Gill. The most obvious difference is in the lowercase L which in Gill is just a vertical stroke whereas in the London Underground type face it has a curl at the bottom.

The London Underground typeface was designed in 1916 by Edward Johnston. The official commercial version can be found here.

It does seem to have a certain something that many other sans serif faces somehow don't seem to have - it's one of my favourites too. Though as a Londoner I find it too strongly associated with the Tube for me to actually make use of it in any of my own work.

Mark
NickHope wrote on 7/12/2006, 10:15 PM
Anybody got a recommendation for offline font-previewing software? It's hard work wading through your system's fonts to find the right one. I used to use Fontpage (that Fontpage, not Frontpage!) but it doesn't support some of the newer font formats.

Nick
Spot|DSE wrote on 7/12/2006, 10:18 PM
I still use FontMonger. Works with everything i've thrown at it, but it's very old.
birdcat wrote on 7/13/2006, 6:29 AM
Spot -

I too use Ares FontMonger, along with Fontographer. They're both great products.

For looking at typefaces, I use a program called Printer's Apprentice - It prints a very nice and compact sample listing that I keep around the desk. It's a $25 shareware product but well worth the money - You can get it here.
baysidebas wrote on 7/13/2006, 8:42 AM
In Windows you can just go to START/Settings/Control Panel/Fonts and double click on the font. Newer versions of Photoshop and other graphics apps provide a preview right on screen when you drop down the available fonts list. Some use just a canned word in the font, others actually use the text you're inputting as the sample.