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600frogs | 4 years ago

Typography, to me, is one of those things that’s simultaneously incredibly boring and completely fascinating. On the one hand, it’s something you experience (whether consciously or not) for a large part of your day, and each font you read in your day has been meticulously chosen for all the supposed qualities it gives off. But on the other hand - it’s just a bloody font.

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KineticLensman|4 years ago

> it’s just a bloody font.

Obligatory http://wondermark.com/650/

luca3v|4 years ago

I am feeling really dumb for asking: the punchline of the comic is clearly that there is something terribly wrong with the typesetting of the business card, but what is it?

PaulHoule|4 years ago

It is not just the font it is how you use it.

Out of the box in PowerPoint or Illustrator, you will struggle to set large characters in print unless you manually change character spacing.

I look at the movie titles and think there are mistakes in the spacing and wonder what kind of machine they used to make it.

All the above software is supposed to have automated ‘Kerninq’ of characters but it does not work well enough.

If serif spacing is tight, the letters link together like cursive or Arabic calligraphy and form a meaningful composition. The default rules, however, avoid serifs crashing into each other at all costs, space letters too far apart, and create meaningless white spaces.

amelius|4 years ago

That business card should have been in comic sans.

600frogs|4 years ago

Heh, first time I’ve seen this. I’m of the opinion that as long as you’re not using something wildly out of place like papyrus or comic sans in a professional setting, it’s not hugely impactful what font you choose. You can spend hours comparing the subtle differences between helvetica and ariel but does it really make a difference?

Also unrelated but the shocked dude in the last pane looks way too much like Elon Musk for my liking.

outworlder|4 years ago

Just a bloody font, the choice of which can greatly enhance your experience (or detract from it).

I would recommend https://practicaltypography.com/

EDIT: mind you, typography is much more than 'just fonts'.

NikolaNovak|4 years ago

I've started reading it. I'll finish it.

But it's subjectively the worst font (or layout, or kerning, or aliasing, or something - I'm extremely not an expert:) I've seen since... mid-90's? I don't know HOW they made it look that bad; I checked if they were accidentally-enlarged images, but nope.

In addition to letters looking (subjectively) bad, it also looks strange. Kernings looks slightly off, and the "Small but necessary interruption" feels like it has another 3 fonts in there. Perhaps They're just lighter or narrow variations (again, not an expert), and then the user-added ALL CAPS with different spacing yet... it feels I'm reading 19th century print. Which is quaint, might be precisely what author is looking for (I once spent an hour trying to get letters on a CD look JUST the right amount of offset and wobbly :P ), but feels a bit... old school.

https://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.ht...

dirtyid|4 years ago

The sheer breadth of typography experimentation in latin alphbet is also astounding. Also personal impressed by how much Japanese typographers managed to keep up with trends and culture. Not many scripts out there with good steam / cyberpunk options. Chinese pretty close. Korean seems to be lagging despite hangul being alphabet. Arabic + Hindi... very disappointing (though default beautiful). But that's just cursory exploration.

bierjunge|4 years ago

A designer friend explained it to me with this image: https://i.redd.it/38jjcgaqu1g11.jpg

Yes, the font you use to communicate with others matters. It's like the tone of your voice and your body language in a personal conversation.