FRIDAY SURPRISE: It's the little
things that make life pleasant
One of the reasons I hate
the very concept of reading books online is because of the
typefaces involved. (In fact, that's one of the saddest parts of
the entire online experience.) There are only a handful that will
reproduce distinctively on a website, and if you're using a Windows
PC (as opposed to a Mac) that number is cut in half (due to the way
Microsoft renders type.) Even such niceties as italics and boldface
are substandard - or non-existent - when getting words through the
'net.
(A typeface, BTW, is a family of type; a "font" is a specific style
within that typeface. For instance, Arial is a typeface consisting
of the fonts Arial Regular, Arial Bold, Arial Italic, etc.)
Typestyles are tremendously important in their ability to bring
emotion to print. One gets a profoundly different feeling reading a
paragraph in, say, Caslon versus that same text in Optima. Subtle
variances in typefaces can bring huge changes to how the words are
perceived by the reader, and the skilled designer recognizes and
exploits that.
The beauty of one specific typeface is the subject of a neat
feature-length
independent film called, simply, "Helvetica." Filmmaker Gary Hustwit
looks at this ubiquitous type, where it came from and why it's
important in the wider world of graphic design. I know, it sounds
dry - but I found it to be engaging as it persuaded me to take a
closer look at something that is, quite literally, everywhere. If
you're a fan of good design, you should check it out.
It's currently available for online viewing at Google
video.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Tags: design