Serif vs Sans Serif

What kind of font do you usually use for documents and stuff? I'm a Serif kid of guy because I got so used to using Times New Roman in school. This month I'm really excited by the Liberation fonts Red Hat released earlier this month.

So what do you go for?

And for those of you who don't know Serif fonts have little lines on them like this:

This is Times New Roman which is a serif font.

This is Arial one of the more popular sans serif fonts.

Always use Times New Roman.

I even have teachers that have you submit work through e-mail, so they can change all the fonts to Times New Roman 12, and set the formatting the way they require

As a rule, sans serif is easier to read when in small type.

Haha,

Do you live in ohio? My buddy was in a debate over this a day or two ago in a GFX class.

johntalin said:

As a rule, sans serif is easier to read when in small type.

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I like Times New Roman presonally. Look very professional. As Talin says, in smaller fonts the serifs can look like they join together and as a result can be harder to read.
Apple seems to have some font that I haven't seen before and quite like.

I'm a Sans guy myself. Sans Serif, Sans Pants, Sans Morals....

I'm very traditional and prefer serif fonts at around 11pt or 12pt for typeset documents, but sans serif does tend to look better on a screen. I don't allow comic sans anywhere

And Comic Sans (I believe a Microsoft invention) is by far and away the MOST ugly font ever devised and a sans serif. Used by millions to make their little office and shop notices look handwritten and therefore less formal. Just atrocious!
There is, I believe a "Ban Comic Sans" community out there. Ha Ha

when I was a student, and writing essays and all that, I had to use Times New Roman, much to my disgust. Sure, it's easy to read, but it's very boring. There are far better serif fonts out there. My typography teacher would probably have failed me if I ever used it in any design briefs we were given

When designing other documents, I'll simply go with a font that suits, or if the company has some kind of style guide, I'll have to stick to that. Nowadays, I don't have to use Times for anything huzzah!

trpnmonkey41 said:

Always use Times New Roman.

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Why?

I even have teachers that have you submit work through e-mail, so they can change all the fonts to Times New Roman 12. . . .

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Lordy.

Three fonts that should never be used anywhere: Times New Roman, Arial and Comic Sans. Even Verdana looks naff in print.

Gill Sans, Helvetica Neue, DIN, Rotis, Myriad - they're nice fonts. Even Garamond and Caslon are far nicer than Times if you like your serifs.


Have a look at http://bancomicsans.com/home.html by the way

I like Baskerville Old Face, a nice classic looking Serif font.

Brown Study said:

Why?Lordy.

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Almost all colleges and government institutions require Times New Roman for anything submitted. I know as of 2004 every diplomatic paper from the US State Department is issued in Times New Roman 14

To reiterate;

Why? Lordy.

I guess it's to make reading everything easy. If they've got loads to read, they probably don't want to deal with "unique" and "interesting" fonts and layouts. Kind of like when hand written essays had to start being typed, to make it easier on the profs...Kinda makes sense.

trpnmonkey41 said:

Almost all colleges and government institutions require Times New Roman for anything submitted. I know as of 2004 every diplomatic paper from the US State Department is issued in Times New Roman 14

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Have you got a link for citation for that? It sounds like a rather bizarre thing and I'd be interested in hearing the rational behind it. After all, on non-Windows systems, Times New Roman is generally considered an "internet compatibility font", with other serif fonts taking their place (usually Adobe Times, but often others like Bookman, Vera Serif or Century Schoolbook). With the advent of Office 2007, Times New Roman has been replaced with Constantia, so even MS have started to abandon it.

I guess it's to make reading everything easy. If they've got loads to read, they probably don't want to deal with "unique" and "interesting" fonts and layouts. Kind of like when hand written essays had to start being typed, to make it easier on the profs...Kinda makes sense.

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LOL - that would imply they have problems with every book and magazine out there. Commercially, it's impossible to find anything in Times. Books are never typeset in it because it looks so amateurish.

Apparently, Gill is the easiest font to read on a scientific level.

I didn't mean that TNR was a specifically easy to read font, just that it made sense to standardise what ever thay were getting. Seemed to make sense to me that's all. I'm sure there's better Fonts out there than TNR.

cazabam said:

Have you got a link for citation for that? It sounds like a rather bizarre thing and I'd be interested in hearing the rational behind it. After all, on non-Windows systems, Times New Roman is generally considered an "internet compatibility font", with other serif fonts taking their place (usually Adobe Times, but often others like Bookman, Vera Serif or Century Schoolbook). With the advent of Office 2007, Times New Roman has been replaced with Constantia, so even MS have started to abandon it.

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http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/state-department-bans-courier-new-12-except-for-treaties

Alexis said:

Commercially, it's impossible to find anything in Times. Books are never typeset in it because it looks so amateurish.

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Except for the London Times (the publication it was named after)

I use whatever typeface is right for the document, and I never use times new roman or arial. I like Bodoni, Bembo, Helvetica, Univers, ITC New Baskerville, etc.