4 ms·

I'm a typography fan, but let's admit it - 90% of the world population could live in world where Courier and Comic Sans would be the only fonts avaiable and wo

by kimi 3y ago

I'm a typography fan, but let's admit it - 90% of the world population could live in world where Courier and Comic Sans would be the only fonts avaiable and would not notice a thing.

dctoedt 3y ago
If you had made the font choices Times New Roman and Arial, I'd have said it's 99.99%.
- __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
  You need at least one monospace font. I'll die on that hill. Throw one in and I'm on your side.
  - dctoedt 3y ago
    Done: Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier — because that's a name known to "normies" — it is!
    - __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
      I accept, thanks comrade.
  - pdpi 3y ago
    Jokes aside, given all four combinations of serif/sans * proportional/monospace, with a good variety of weights and italics, and you’ll have covered the vast majority of use cases.
irrational 3y ago
Don’t you dare forget Papyrus! https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ?si=GYj6XGNv2AMAZqCg https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ?si=GYj6XGNv2AMAZqCg But, the reality is 99.9999% of websites can use one of the free Google fonts. The other .0001% could too, but they want to show that they are not like all the other websites.
imiric 3y ago
The ability of readers to identify a font is largely orthogonal to the psychological/emotional impact it has on them. Designers use distinctive fonts because they transmit a, mostly subconscious, feeling—reliability, innovation, vision, purpose, etc. This is usually tied to a brand and becomes a major part of a company's image, in which case it is crucial to the company's market reach. This is why there are many logotypes that consist of nothing more than the company name in a specific font. Typefaces are _that_ powerful. So, yes, people would notice if most brands started "feeling" the same.
- romanhn 3y ago
  > they transmit a, mostly subconscious, feeling—reliability, innovation, vision, purpose, etc. I do not believe this for a second. Has there been any serious research done on this?
  - imiric 3y ago
    Not sure what you mean by "serious", but this is well known in design circles. Maybe this[1] will convince you? Typography is visual design after all, and is not any different from other design elements we see all around us. It's obvious that it has an impact in how we perceive and experience brands, and the source of any text we read. [1]: https://www.monotype.com/company/news/monotype-study-shows-typeface-choice-can-boost-positive-consumer-response-13 https://www.monotype.com/company/news/monotype-study-shows-t...
    - romanhn 3y ago
      Thank you. Also found additional discussion in https://designmodo.com/font-psychology https://designmodo.com/font-psychology. I'm still skeptical that there is anything intrinsic about the meanings specific fonts convey outside of being used in previous contexts (e.g. conveys "fashionable" because it's overused in fashion industry, per one example). That said, I'm more open to the idea of font psychology now.
    - leereeves 3y ago
      That study was funded by Monotype, a company with an incentive to find the result they found. Is it any more credible than other corporate funded research?

by kimi 3y ago

I'm a typography fan, but let's admit it - 90% of the world population could live in world where Courier and Comic Sans would be the only fonts avaiable and would not notice a thing.

dctoedt 3y ago

If you had made the font choices Times New Roman and Arial, I'd have said it's 99.99%.

__MatrixMan__ 3y ago
You need at least one monospace font. I'll die on that hill. Throw one in and I'm on your side.
- dctoedt 3y ago
  Done: Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier — because that's a name known to "normies" — it is!
  - __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
    I accept, thanks comrade.
- pdpi 3y ago
  Jokes aside, given all four combinations of serif/sans * proportional/monospace, with a good variety of weights and italics, and you’ll have covered the vast majority of use cases.

irrational 3y ago

Don’t you dare forget Papyrus! https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ?si=GYj6XGNv2AMAZqCg https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ?si=GYj6XGNv2AMAZqCg But, the reality is 99.9999% of websites can use one of the free Google fonts. The other .0001% could too, but they want to show that they are not like all the other websites.

imiric 3y ago

The ability of readers to identify a font is largely orthogonal to the psychological/emotional impact it has on them. Designers use distinctive fonts because they transmit a, mostly subconscious, feeling—reliability, innovation, vision, purpose, etc. This is usually tied to a brand and becomes a major part of a company's image, in which case it is crucial to the company's market reach. This is why there are many logotypes that consist of nothing more than the company name in a specific font. Typefaces are _that_ powerful. So, yes, people would notice if most brands started "feeling" the same.

romanhn 3y ago
> they transmit a, mostly subconscious, feeling—reliability, innovation, vision, purpose, etc. I do not believe this for a second. Has there been any serious research done on this?
- imiric 3y ago
  Not sure what you mean by "serious", but this is well known in design circles. Maybe this[1] will convince you? Typography is visual design after all, and is not any different from other design elements we see all around us. It's obvious that it has an impact in how we perceive and experience brands, and the source of any text we read. [1]: https://www.monotype.com/company/news/monotype-study-shows-typeface-choice-can-boost-positive-consumer-response-13 https://www.monotype.com/company/news/monotype-study-shows-t...
  - romanhn 3y ago
    Thank you. Also found additional discussion in https://designmodo.com/font-psychology https://designmodo.com/font-psychology. I'm still skeptical that there is anything intrinsic about the meanings specific fonts convey outside of being used in previous contexts (e.g. conveys "fashionable" because it's overused in fashion industry, per one example). That said, I'm more open to the idea of font psychology now.
  - leereeves 3y ago
    That study was funded by Monotype, a company with an incentive to find the result they found. Is it any more credible than other corporate funded research?