The whole book is set in it? Isn't it hard to read?

Yes and yes.

What makes it really hard to read, though, is that it's written in German, and I don't really know German.

Ha yeah, a knowledge of German would help. So you checked a book out of the library that you can't read, because you liked the font?

What font is the one used at the top of this site? I'm in love. The lower case p is fraktur all the way, but the other letters aren't. Anyone have any idea?

I checked it out because there was no translator's preface to the english translation I got, and I wanted to check how a few technical terms were translated, because I'm such a mad thorough scholar.

The font was just a bonus.

powazek
blast from the past millenium
*must run as phone pesters*

OK, WTF is "fraktur"?

Hrrummph! Nice of you to stop by 329 on your little Fall Break trip around the metasphere, bitch.

Enjoy your little nazi font book, do you read it on the can or one-handed?

fuck
so fucking close
to a fully good day
that phone call and now this
shitaly

its kind of like this.

Incidentally ...

The nazis used fraktur and a pseudo gothic font called Deutchland, secretly called by printers Schaftstieflegrotesk or jackboot grotesque

The Germans stopped using blackletter in 1941 because of a guy named Martin Bormann. all german printers had to adjust to roman letters and news papers had to be reset. can you imagine being told to suddenly change all your printing plates and tonnes of lead type over? it must have been a nightmare. Especially during a war, it would have seemed frivolous. The official explanation for the switch was, of course, the jews invented the font when they ran the printing presses. (It was a fake excuse hitler concocted. History shows the Jewish were forbidden from running a press during the 19th century and probably earlier)

In reality the fraktur font was abolished because in 1941 hitler was stomping on the face of the globe and taking over countries at a rate of 3 every day before noon, and none of the newly acquired countries could read the stupid font. the nazis had to adapt to roman, because everyone else in the world was already using it.

Nazis loved their fraktur so much that hitler had to reverse his order and allow people to use it for everyday printings, but not for official things like street signs, and certificates.

My name is Joel, and i am a font geek.

*shakes hand*

Wow, joel - cool thumbnail font history lesson there!

Speaking of fonts, how cool is this?

Thanks, joelf.

*discovers yet another reason to admire joelf*

exactly. And I don't think he mentioned this on the Reasons to Continue Dating him. What an oversight.

1. Hope you're enjoying "Mein Kampf", kenko.

2. A tiny flame of hope burns inside me that someday history will throw Comic Sans on the ash heap in much the same way.

Could the font geeks splane why the hate on for comic sans? It seems simple and easy to read. Why is it hated so?

It's simple, easy to read... and hideous. People have an unfortunate tendency to use it in places where a more staid font is called for [e.g. the credits for the {very good} movie "Rabbit-Proof Fence" or in papers. Reading an entire paper in Comic Sans makes me want to tear out my eyeballs.]

OK so a whole paper in comic sans would be much.

Could the font geeks explain why anyone ever thought Fraktur and related fonts were a good idea?

kenko, Fraktur developed directly from calligraphic script, while most modern typefaces come from the simplified humanist ("Roman") scripts developed in Italy during the early Renaissance. It continued to be used in Germany for a long time because of the special characters it supported, and it continues as a display and signage face for obvious nostalgic reasons.

Incidentally, joelf, the reason cited at Wikipedia, which I find more believable, is that the printing presses in the Nazi-occupied territories did not have the ability to print Fraktur.

why the hate on for comic sans?

> Comic Sans as a voice conveys silliness, childish naivete, irreverence, and is far too casual for [most purposes]

I don't hate it but it certainly has been overused due to its inclusion as the main "casual" typeface on many PCs. And most people don't understand why it shouldn't be used, say, in e-mail.