What's your font type?

Tony's right (just after the bit you quoted, kenan), Bembo looks good. Never looked properly before.

It is lovely. One big problem, though -- it's called "Bembo."

I don't work in finance either, I work for a magazine and I'm the only one in the company on a mac. So when I send in my holiday requests or expenses claims, which are created on PCs and supposed to be in Goudy, it takes ages to work out what the hell's going on with the forms.

most overused font of recent = FF's JustLeftHand. it's on every bloody menu, and second-rate commercial van and shop at the mo.

and i bet the menu-setters/sign writers didn't bloody license it. FF fonts - most expensive in the world. but they are nice.

img tag was disabled! you can use the i thingie.

Gill Sans was loosely based on Johnston, but doesn't really look much like it. I've noticed, too, a lot of variation in the various Gill Sans truetype versions available for PCs. The original version was designed by Eric Gill for Monotype, for a commission from the London & North Eastern Railway - part of Gill's payment was a footplate ride on the Flying Scotsman. It was later used as the British Railways house font until they switched to Helvetica in 1964, as part of the big "Corporate Image" project.

http://www.fontscape.com/pictures/itc/Shatter.gif

I see that nobody answered my Garamond question.

I've been using Georgia since like whenever it came out. Sometimes I think it Microsoft's greatest invention.

I was using Georgia for a while until we got XP at the office, Tracer is on point about readability at small sizes.

alright i just made georgia 20 and i don't get it, it looks the same. except somewhat bigger.

http://typecgi.adobe.com/cgi-bin/type/online.exe?string=Does%20ilx%20like%20it?&imgx=380&imgy=60&font=MinionPro-Medium.otf

I love it!

And yeah, italic type is almost as old as books, but was invented not for emphasis or to make type frilly, but to get as much of it on the page as possible.

georgia

I have here a copy of "An Essay on Typography" by Gill, which was set entirely in Joanna by him. It's a beautiful book, and its contents typically idiosyncratic, wide-ranging, concise, elegant, funny and insane. (Paul Rand's NY Times review is interesting.) Some of my favourite bits:

"There are now about as many different varieties of letters as there are different kinds of fools."

"The sound of the klaxon hurts our ears — it is meant to do so — lest worse befall us. Were it as rare as the screech of the peacock we should like it — at any rate its assocations would be more delightful."

"It is not the artist who is sentimental—it is the men of business and the man of science."

The choice quote from his entry on Wikipedia is:

"Gill's devout Roman Catholicism did not prevent him from living a bohemian lifestyle and taking lovers. According to the 1989 biography by Fiona MacCarthy, Gill's relationships included two of his sisters and two of his daughters. His personal diaries also describe, in great detail, regular sexual activity between himself and the family dog."

(This is not Wikipedia vandalism. It's true.) Satisyingly, I bought his Essay on Typography at a second-hand book shop in Hay-on-Wye, which is a stone's throw from Capel-y-ffin, where all this fun took place. He's basically my hero. Here's one of his charming etchings asserting the holiness of sex.

http://www.artline.com/galleries/aaron/publications/catalog/gill_bending_92.jpg

http://drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/0072.jpg

I used a similar comparison here. It has a few more fonts, but the screenshots are separate and cleartype is always on.