MetaChat - I just did a design layout using Verdana, am I going to hell?

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

10 March 2010

I just did a design layout using Verdana, am I going to hell? →[More:]
Dear MetaChat font nerds, I hope you will forgive me.

I got tagged to do some of those wallet emergency contact card thingys at work this week.

Since I've done projects like this in the past, I figured I'd at least try to make it look better than the current version, aka "oh hey, let's print this black-and-white Excel spreadsheet out, reduce it on the copier and turn it into illegible polyunsaturated ass".

So I laid it out and made it all pretty (it's the correct BigPharmaCo Pantone blue! it has kerning! It has lovely neat dot leader center tabs! It's completely legible! It even has a nifty accent stripe in Secondary Pantone Blue, per Corporate design standards!)

And I tried laying it out in Helvetica. Nope, not gonna work, that's just too fat a font for the amount of text that had to be skooshed on there. I tried pretty much every san serif font available, and even had ironic visions of losing my shit and doing the whole enchilada in Comic Sans (don't even get me started, I mean, my choice of desktop publishing software was any MS Office 2003 application), and in the end, Verdana was the only thing that actually worked and was legible at the eentsy point sizes I was forced to use.

Hold me?

post by: lonefrontranger at: 21:41 | 11 comments

Verdana was the only thing that actually worked....

It was an ordinary day, but everything was subtly wrong when LFR went to work.... First it was the furniture in the reception area seemed different. Then....

posted by warbaby 10 March | 21:53

Well, I like Tahoma as a Verdana alternative (so feel free to stone me), but I can't criticize using something that works fairly well and was readily available. (We can all think of better narrow sans-serifs, but I'm sure you didn't have them on your work computer.)

posted by oneswellfoop 10 March | 22:12

Most font hate is a kind of class snobbishness. Ignore it and trust your eyes.

posted by BoringPostcards 10 March | 22:12

I've only started being comfortable with non-fixed fonts so you won't get any grief from me.

posted by octothorpe 10 March | 22:14

No! No! Shhhhh, shhhhh, calm down, it's okay, everything is going to be okay. You aren't going to hell, no. Hush, quiet now, it's alright, everything is gonna be alllllrriiiiight. *rocks lfr comfortingly, brushing her hair away from her fevered brow*

posted by msali 10 March | 22:37

Most font hate is a kind of class snobbishness. Ignore it and trust your eyes.

S'truth.

Did you try Trebuchet?

posted by deborah 10 March | 22:43

I can't judge. Since I got the new version of Word I've been doing everything in Calibri. I freaking love it.

posted by kellydamnit 10 March | 23:14

As someone who's been involved with graphic design for nearly twenty-five years, doing book design and composition for over twenty years, I'll say that your instincts were right, given the nature of your project and the sans serif fonts available to you without spending money.

The structure of Verdana makes it more legible at small sizes (in print; I'm not considering on screen use) than Helvetica, Trebuchet, or Tahoma. (I'd go into a long, boring discussion but it's waaayyy past my bedtime today.)

I probably would not have used any of those, but then again I've got a good library of fonts for serious text work (not ornamental display fonts) which I've spent a fair amount of money on over the years.

(On preview, I think Calibri is much more attractive, but not everyone has it and Verdana still has some advantages at extremely small sizes.)

posted by D.C. 11 March | 03:39

(I'd go into a long, boring discussion but it's waaayyy past my bedtime today.)

Hee. True, that. (both parts) ♥

posted by Stewriffic 11 March | 08:26

thanks msali, I feel loads better this morning.

I've got a good library of fonts for serious text work (not ornamental display fonts) which I've spent a fair amount of money on over the years.

*seethes with jealousy*

the tossers in IT refuse to let us load anything; which includes fonts. Of course, this also stops the Computer Illiterati from uploading Texas Hold 'Em off a spam site, so eh, who am I to judge.

keep in mind this is a corporate entity which forces us to use IE6 as our browser.

I just cut, laminated and distributed the lot, they look pretty spiffy (despite the font, which will continue to niggle at me) and my colleagues (being as they are engineers and scientists, not designers) are suitably impressed. Just doing the layout such that it can actually be read apparently has the Health and Safety director (an older gentleman who wears bifocals) ready to kiss my toes.

TREMBLE YE MORTALS AT THE POWER OF COMPETENT DESKTOP PUBLISHING!!

posted by lonefrontranger 11 March | 11:45

what font is metachat? I thought it was Verdana...

posted by serena 11 March | 16:29

← what protein bar or shake is the least gross? || Plates of beans. And books. And the overthinking of both. →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN