Today in a workshop I attended the facilitator recommended formating all documents in the Arial typeface. I winced. There’s something about Arial that just rubs me the wrong way – but I can’t guarantee that Helvetica will be available on every computer that prints out my documents. Later today I stumble across The Scourge of Arial which contains some history about how Arial came to be ubiquitous.
Greenflame
Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand
3 responses to “The Scourge of Arial”
I don’t understand what basis they have for their recommending a sans serif for readability…it’s ok on computer screens, but serifs are proven to have a higher legibility at reading point sizes. the main reason is because the serifs guide the eye and also because they are much more familiar : given that’s what books are most often set in.
sheesh.
my recommendation is that we use pdfs or set everything in times new roman.
I tend to use Helvetica for headings and a serif typeface for body text. The presenter yesterday argued that Arial was more readable – and less old fashioned – that Times New Roman. You’d be hard-pressed to a book typeset in a sans-serif typeface (unless there was a good reason), as you point out.
Possibly the desire to reduce everything to bullet points and Powerpoint results in the inability to select a typeface for readability of more than a few sentences.
For the record though because I’m using a university supplied thesis template/stylesheet my thesis is set in Times and Arial. I’m not happy but it will conform to the requirements. I remember when I did my MSc thesis back in the early 90s we had to take a sample of our thesis to the reference librarian so they could approve the style and typeface selection (given the penchant for students to use as many typefaces as possible in a document)
Both Arial and Times New Roman are inferior versions of real typefaces. But Microsoft also saw fit to sponsor some very excellent new typefaces for screen-reading. Use Verdana and Georgia. They’re not the best fonts to print with but on screen they’re great. These are the only Microsoft “software” I allow on my computer. And since they come from Microsoft, even people who are locked into Microsoft Windows – Microsoft Word – Microsoft Internet Explorer – Microsoft PowerPoint – Microsoft Exchange etc etc. will have them on their machine.