@Danielw - you have a signature font, and I adore it. What is it called?
Do you mean the font of this site? It is Valkyrie, created by Matthew Butterick.
https://practicaltypography.com/valkyrie.html
Valkyrie is a contemporary, calligraphic serif partly inspired by palatino.
If you mean my presentations – that’s Harman (specifically Harman Retro), by Ahmed Altun:
PS I am so happy you asked. A while ago, I decided to be a little more font-conscious (and I bought the fonts I use, too). I’m glad it’s noticeable.
Ha! I used to write in Palatino years ago. I thought this font felt familiar.
Butterick’s fonts are great. I wanted one for years and then, eventually, I decided to spend the money. I also like Century Supra https://practicaltypography.com/century-supra.html
His book is well worth reading, if you are interested in text layout, either as an author or editor: https://practicaltypography.com
Hey, Johne!
Fancy meeting you over here in Daniel’s world!
Madeline
I mostly use Merriweather, Arial and Times New Roman.
Hey, Madeline! {waves}
Was it my arty side maybe, or plain curiosity that made me explore different fonts initially? Soon enough, to not waste time I would just get on with it with whichever font my laptop program provided on first click - which was Calibri. Upon discovering that Times New Roman is the favoured font for many (most?) submissions, this became my ‘go to’. It’s a purposeful act, I think, that the first thing I do now when starting a new piece is to change the computer font to this.
Is it the familiarity of Times New Roman that makes it even more widely-used in publishing? —It’s the font predominantly used in legal documents written in English, which makes me think ‘BORING’. But it’s also apparently (and perhaps for this reason, also) viewed as the most trustworthy … So, much in a font, eh!
Came across this yesterday regarding serifs in fonts and how they affect a reader’s visual absorption: from How Novels Work by John Mullan -
‘Conventional wisdom is that serifs help the brain’s visual apparatus as a line of paint is scanned. The tiny thickenings and thinning of the limbs of every letter give the eye something to catch onto. Sans serif fonts may be used in advertisements, headlines and the like, but their simplicity is almost physically uncomfortable in any lengthy text. The san serif font’s discomfiting simplicity is perfectly suited to the narrator in Mark Hudson’s The Curious Tale of The Dog In The Night- Christopher (who is autistic) in all his pedantic veracity … Graphically speaking we are in Christopher’s nuance-free world.’
I hate times new roman. I think it’s stupid that almost all submissions require writers to use that one font. My favorite font is Palatino, only because it feels right to me. No other reason. I also like Bookman Old Style.
Relevant to this conversation:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-27/the-most-readable-font-is-not-times-new-roman
The D.C. Circuit is reportedly worried that use of a narrow font like Garamond allows lawyers to squeeze extra text into mandated page limits.
So funny. When using Garamond, I feel like I’m designing with a very voluptuous font that needs space to look even better. D’s and O’s and numbers are all luxuriously wide.
I write my novels using Garamond, but when I want to highlight a newspaper story and/or phone texts between the characters within the stories, I use Verdana.