January 2011
I am reading a book about fonts, or typefaces, at the moment. Not mainstream and not scintillating; but quite interesting nonetheless. Fonts are something we see every day of our lives on cereal packets, on computer screens, on signs, etc. Every word you see printed, or on a computer or tv screen, has a particular typeface.
For example, this text you are reading now is called Verdana. It is a “sans-serif” font (no tails on the character extremities). It was designed for Microsoft by a chap called Matthew Carter. The Verdana font was designed specifically as a small typeface suitable for reading on computer screens and was released by Microsoft in 1996.
Just before Christmas, I heard about a book called “Just My Type” by Simon Garfield and, as I have a passing interest in fonts (I always reckon you can estimate the age of a film from the font style used in the credits), I put it on my Christmas list.
I was reading a section this week on legibility; how different font designs lend themselves to be more easily read than others. For example, most of the UK’s road signs are in the font called “Transport”. Research has shown that, when travelling at speed, lower case letters are easier to read than upper case ones. Now, there’s a little fact that you can drop into your next dinner party conversation...
As I was reading this section in the book, The Current Mrs W. came into the room and said “for God’s sake put your glasses on!” I was reading the book at full arm-stretch and was (apparently) squinting at the pages. The irony of squinting at a passage of text explaining typeface legibility was not entirely lost on me.
Typefaces, road-signage and their legibility are pretty much the topics for my rant-of-the-week. Specifically, bloody homemade road signs.
I get really naffed of by microscopic signs for village fêtes or similar that are attached to a little wooden stake and hammered into the grass verge, usually at the entrance to said village. I mean, just how good do these bloody villagers think a driver’s eyesight is?
Typically, these signs are printed on an A4 sheet of paper and contain (presumably) a detailed agenda of the forthcoming “fête-worse-than-death’s” attractions. But, no one actually has any idea what they say because unless you stop, park your car on the verge, get out and lie down on the grass 2 feet from the sign, you can’t read a bloody word!
Occasionally, you do get some bright spark who realises that you can’t read the typeface “Comic Sans” (every fête advert is ALWAYS in typeface Comic Sans, usually in yellow on white paper) at a size of 12-points from 50 yards away in a car travelling at 30mph!
So, what do they do? Well, they print individual words on individual banners and hammer these into the grass verge one after the other over a distance of about 50 yards.
Usually, fêtes advertised using this multi-board advert approach never actually take place. This is because of the carnage caused by car after car driving over the verge and ending up in a ditch at the entrance to the village as drivers try to read and piece together into a sentence, the long row of singular words on each little bloody placard!
Arrrrrrghh!
...and relax, breathe in, breathe out.