Times Old Roman - New Microsoft applications lose classic font
Virgil:
February 25th, 2007
With the release of Microsoft Windows Vista and its flagship Office 2007 suite of desktop publishing applications, there has been a lot of hype and excitement, and a general sensation of advancing to a new digital level. Everything is “easier” and “faster” than before, you can do more of what you want, and it’s all so good that the Vista slogan is simply “Wow.”
But amidst all this, I find a saddening thought. With all this new gadgetry, everything has been dressed up in funky animation, graphics, bright colours and swish backgrounds. Gone are the good old days when writing a Word document was a simple and mild procedure which didn’t assault you with an attempt to make you shout “Wow.”
These attempts to be cooler are exhibited most poignantly in this: the loss of the default font, Times New Roman. From Office 2007 onwards, all applications use the new font Callibri, a sans-serif ‘new age’ alternative to the curled and omnipresent tradition with its squiggly ‘g’s. It is a tradition I will miss; Times New Roman, I salute you in your passing.
May 10th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
[…] “Typefaces control the message. Choice of font dictates what you think about something before you even read the first word. Imagine Shakespeare in large capital drop shadow. Our response would be quite different towards the content.” This interesting point made by a leading graphical designer captures why fonts are so important. If a bank’s logo was written in handwriting it might appear too fun and personal - whereas what you really want from a bank is reliability and security - so something less curly would be appropriate. The paradigm of such a font, Helvetica, recently celebrated the 50th birthday of its design. Little do you know it, but this simple clean typeface is seen almost everywhere everyday - it is the staple choice for businesses wishing to give a message of steadfastness - it doesn’t say too much or too little, being neutral and legible. The font is used integrally in the logos of companies such as Gap, Orange, Currys, Hoover, Panasonic and the Royal Bank of Scotland - the full list would go on for pages. However, as popular as it is among corporations, many find it utterly uninspiring and uncreative. Over the years, various campaigns have sought to ban certain fonts, including the Nazis trying to ban ‘Gothic’ fonts, whilst modern online petitions abhor the casual Comic Sans MS. It’s an interesting battle, because as arbitrary as typeface seems, we all have our favourite typefaces, and we tend to be quite particular about what we like to read and write in. A comment on the BBC article sums up the ridiculousness of it all: “Two fonts walk into a bar and ask for a pint, but the barman replies, ‘Sorry lads, we don’t serve your type.’” […]