I am a bit of an everyday font nerd. Not the sort that knows a great deal or can label fonts at five feet; more the common garden bird variety that rages against Comic Sans and quietly subverts the ‘only use Arial’ workplace rules. But with this book I took a dip in to a world of skilled craftsmanship and serious typeface passion, where people care about the shoulder and face, about the kerning, and the picas. Not to mention its historic beginnings; in an age where it’s easy to share anything with a worldwide audience in seconds, it’s hard to imagine the enormous impact made by Gutenberg and the printing press.
With such variety and beauty in the faces and founts (as they were originally penned) it seems a shame to never stray from Calibri or Courier. Some lovely new discoveries for me were Peignot, Stone and Vendôme.
I’ve been noticing the font on everything, and finally caved in to my curiosity and got the WhatTheFont app. Once you start looking, you notice this rich variety to our everyday communications, and will find a few favourites and some pet hates.
Meanwhile, I discovered a new pangram- Grumpy wizards make toxic brews for the evil Queen and Jack- and watched a video of that classic quick brown fox in action.
A fellow font nerd! At last I’ve found one!
I must admit I go a bit overboard with my passion for them – I’ve been known to be found muttering to strangers in the supermarket ‘How can that brand possibly be using Amatic Small Caps ?!’ in disgust… I may have an actual font-problem!
I’m starting to fear the same! Sometimes I find myself distracted by the look of it, rather than actually reading the content! We’ll have to set up Fonts Anonymous..