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Archiver > TMG > 2000-05 > 0957325171


From: "Mills" <>
Subject: [TMG-L:] Re: TMG-L: Re: Font-handling & Typography
Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 22:39:31 -0500
References: <3902069B.7C595110@epix.net> <4.1.20000423183814.009619e0@pop.mis.net> <390453DB.B70ADF18@epix.net> <000a01bfae2b$167a3e00$4a6130c1@in2p3.fr> <012401bfb0fd$5432e7e0$caa15ac2@1> <004601bfb12b$8e842c00$1da70218@mrdn1.ct.home.com> <010e01bfb2fc$1dba13e0$c9a15ac2@1> <00f801bfb308$8ca07720$1660f7a5@lautman> <390D7E4F.6B970164@epix.net> <390DAC62.B35F8EF9@uswest.net> <390DE65F.12BC7A73@epix.net> <005a01bfb3d4$c468bba0$ef500a3f@1pka7> <390F8145.E630CD92@epix.net>


Jeffrey wrote:
> I could find no examples among all of the major manufacturers
> of serif fonts being used to label electronic equipment controls or
> instruments via labels, placards, silkscreening, etc. Also, the video
> tubes used in the electronic cockpits of today all display text in
> sans-serif. I wonder what aspects of the printed page make the
> necessity for serifs? I don't offer any proof of what's more
> 'readable', but doesn't it say something about flight safety if
> sans-serif is somehow less readable

You raise a valid point here, Jeffrey. Signs are very frequently rendered in
sans-serif. But signs, whether large or small, use words sparsely--often
just 1 or 2 words that need to be boldly written. The use of sans-serif for
those occasions is similar to using it for headlines and subheads, where
they are highly desirable. Used for a word or a short phrase, they stand out
and are quickly grasped. It's the use of them for body text, running on for
paragraphs and pages on end, that becomes tiring.

Look at it this way, sans-serif is great for shouting. But who wants to be
shouted at all the way through a book?

(And now we probably should let this subject die before *we* get shouted at
<g>.)

Elizabeth Shown Mills


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