admin_allan

The Trouble With Fonts

Fonts bug me.

As a designer I actually LOVE a well designed font. I know the hard work it takes to design one. I believe the designer should be paid for their work. I like trying new fonts and I believe they have a big effect on a design. Yet here’s my problems with fonts:

1. There’s too many choices

My computer has 1169 fonts on it. I have done a bit of categorizing using Linotype’s FontExplorer, but who has the time to do it right? Yes, I could visit some website that has it all done for you, but I don’t always know which ones I have already. I could also go to a free font site, but then I have to look through dozens of junky ones before I find a good one. That brings me to my next problem:

2. There’s too many free fonts

Like I said, I think good designers should get paid. But dang it, there’s some really good fonts out there for free and they are always tempting me! Why didn’t you talented designers just make it easy for me and charge money for the good stuff? And what about all those fonts on my computer? Why pay when I have lots of choices already? A new font needs to have a pretty significant design flavour before I can ever get the courage to buy a new one.

3. Font rights are a hassle

Over the years I’ve had a few jobs at different places, and I’ve used many different computers. When you go from one to another, the easiest way to make the switch is to migrate everything you had on the previous computer. I’ve tried to purge myself of fonts that I know I don’t own, but who knows if I did the whole job? THE GUILT!

Furthermore, every new font I get has a different license agreement. And every font handles it in a different way—sometimes in a little readme file, sometimes on the website where you got it. How do I keep track of all this?

4. Web fonts are more hassle

Browsers nowadays finally have the ability to display custom fonts. Problem is, you still need to keep track of whether a font allows you the rights for web use. Then you have to either convert your font to the proper format or else pay an online font provider. If you get a font provider you often have to pay a subscription fee. Then you have to convince your client that they need it. I don’t know about you, but paying a regular fee so my website can have a certain font seems odd to me.

What I want

In a perfect world, every font would be a good one. I could find the perfect one quickly. I would own the rights to anything I wanted to use, and having it on my website would be as simple as naming it in the css file. Lastly, every client would appreciate having good fonts.

When Jesus comes back to make all things new, I’ll be waving my hand to ask about this font thing.

We’re not gonna take it!

I was interested last week to learn of Dee Snider’s request to the Mitt Romney campaign to cease playing his music. I can’t say I’m a big fan of one or the other, but his statement “There is almost nothing he stands for that I agree with…” struck a chord with me. I admired the statement for two reasons:

Snider is staying true to his principles, and
He’s not being a jerk about it. He didn’t take the opportunity to fling insults or belittle Romney, he just told it like it is.

In the communication industry it is inevitable that your values will conflict with those of a client at some point. It’s hard to decide when to voice your objection, especially when you’re not the boss.

A few years ago now my employer took on a job building a website which taught some very unorthodox variations of Christianity. I nervously requested to be exempt from the project, and the employer graciously honoured my request. Later on I explained that my position was not based on intolerance but the fact that if I care about other people, I will care enough to protect them from what, in my humble opinion, is damaging to them spiritually.

It’s somewhat easier but still no less uncomfortable now that I am self-employed. Just last week I had a serious conversation with a client about what I thought were deeply materialistic messages on their website. I was thankful that the client was also very reasonable and receptive to my criticism, so much that I felt that an ongoing relationship was in the best interest of both of us.

Lesson learned? It’s well worth it to be brave, be courteous, be honest, and have integrity mixed with humility. No one respects a yes-man, and a yes-man doesn’t end up respecting himself. I’m grateful that neither of the above situations resulted badly, but even if they did, I believe I would still be happier in the end for speaking up.

Limericks in the News

I was pleased to learn recently that the comedian Ronnie Barker shared my views on Edward Lear’s limericks, namely that they were in need of improvement. He took matters into his own hands, and re-wrote a large portion of the poems in Lear’s Book of Nonsense. Now the edited copy is up for auction and they are expecting it to fetch £1,500 or more.

I wrote earlier about my plans to publish and program an interactive e-book featuring my own limericks. I am up to 81 now, and the Haxe programming framework is nearing* completion. I don’t suppose this recent limerick news is going to create any sort of limerick hype that I can cash in on, but it’s fun to suppose it might!

When I finally release my project it will feature such doggerel as this:

On a day when insufferably bored,
I attempted to swallow a sword.
The insertion I made
Badly twisted the blade.
Like an apple, I soon became cored.

Author: admin_allan