typefaces/fonts & punctuation

[maitre d']

Ages ago when I thought I could make it as a reporter on a local paper, we were told the 'House Style' for the paper was the typefaces/font had to be Serif based [usually Times New Roman] as opposed Sans Serif [like Arial]. The reason being was that it's supposed to be more aethetically pleasing to the eye, and the little serifs are supposed to lead the eye from one word to the next [a bit like joined handwriting is supposed to. Also you had to leave 2 or 3 spaces after a full stop, ! or ? , and one space after any other punctuation. What do think?

[Squirrel]

I agree with the two-spaces-after-a-full-stop thing because it helps distinguish a sentence break (long pause) from a comma or other short pause. I haven't noticed that reading is made much easier with the "serifs", but Arial and TNR seem to be among the most common, and therefore easiest to read, of fonts.

http://webdev.pongworld.com/fonts/fonts.php is a good site, and shows the traits of various fonts and styles. I find that Courier New is a useful font for aligning numbers and letters vertically, because every character has the same width. It's also fun to make "ASCII drawings" with Courier New.

[Squirrel]

What am I doing? This is a QuizMonster question!

[gazzawazza]

Yeah, I like two or three spaces after a full stop, but I don't think it works on AB does it? I really dislike Times New Roman, I think it's because it looks so "stuffy." Whenever I start a new document the first thing I do is change the font. When typing to friends I usually use Comic Sans but my fave at the moment is Paris, I think it looks really cool when it's been printed out. By the way, why does it keep reverting to TNR every time you tab to start a new paragraph?

[ralph1953]

Call me Old Fashioned but I think, If someone's paying your wage, they should be allowed to tell you to conform to the House Style

[chef]

gazzawazza - have you tried changing the default font to what you prefer?

[Quizmonster]

Nice of you to think of me, Squirrel, but I have no particular expertise in the matter of 'house styles'. Given that every printing/publishing establishment has its own rules on layout, there's probably little point in quibbling about them.

What Maitre d' says about spacing is, my partner assures me, standard practice in the teaching of typing in any case. Not having been taught typing - a fact sometimes obvious in my answers - I've never left more than a single space after any punctuation...ever! You live and learn, eh? (But I think I'll just stick with my very own house-rules at this late stage.)

[xyzzy@bok]

Psychologically, the serif fonts are authoritative and commanding; the san serif informative and friendly; if you try noticing where and when these two styles are used in news and advertising and on forms, you may agree ;-)

[AB Editor]

Think Deep wrote: I go for serifs if it's for a large block of text, I definitely think it's easier to read; sans-serif for headings and short point, like in slide-shows. As for full stops & other ends of sentences, I leave 2 spaces, one after a comma. But! In HTML on websites, the second space doesn't show up, as you'll see from this paragraph, that I've typed with my usual 2 spaces!

[AB Editor]

and woodpam wrote: I think that this depends on the audience you are writing for and the level of formality you want to convey. At work we often prepare information sheets for young people and separate ones for employers. We tend to bullet a lot of the major points so that they stand out with clear white space around them.For the younger end of the age group we often use Comic Sans as it's easy to read and informal and for employers my favourite is Tahoma for its elegant, well balanced appearance. My pet hate is text placed over a highly patterned background or a background of similar colours (my bank card has my account number in silver on a grey background) which anyone with less than 20:20 vision will struggle with.

[honkytonkman]

I work as a graphic designer in a publishing team and to use a double space after a full stop is deemed to be rather archaic nowadays ' I just consulted a scientific editor. It was the standard typing practice but like spoken English changes so do rules of punctuation. The indented first line at the beginning of a paragraph is also falling from common use... thankfully...as it looks dreadful. *climbs off soapbox*

[Andromeda]

I always type with two spaces after a full stop, exclaimation mark and question mark, but only one after anythiing else. Work has just adopted Univers as the house style, and I think it looks blooming awful. TNR, I agree looks authoratative, but I also think it looks archaic (but not as much as Courier New!) I prefer arial, and find it one of the more easy fonts to read.

Andy