atw: Re: A philosophic diatribe on the vagaries of fashion (not as off topic as it looks)

I only ever use Verdana 10pt at work and at home (blogging) as I find it
the best font for online delivery. In an earlier job publishing user
manuals, I settled on Garamond -- again, a 'broad' font that takes up
space (what newspapers using Times decline to accept) but that is easy
on the eye.

 

As to the hegemony of pundits and the fashion of ideas - innovation
occurs at the periphery.

 

Matt

 

-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christine Kent
Sent: Wednesday, 24 October 2007 8:14 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: A philosophic diatribe on the vagaries of fashion (not as
off topic as it looks)

 

Oh Brian, I almost envy the certainty of "true believers".  

 

In my world, today's "expert" is always tomorrow's "chuntering" fool,
even

the greatest of them, so I am not likely to prostrate myself at the feet
of

some self appointed readability experts. 

 

Fashions change over time, and so will this one. 

 

Calibri is a good point in question - sans serif font, so supposedly not
as

readable as a serif font.  I had already fallen in love with Comic Sans,
but

knew it looked too "girlie" for general use. But for ME it was by far
the

easiest font to read. Then material landed on my desk for review,
written in

Calibri.  I wasn't sure - it looked nice, the page looked clean, but
were my

eyes struggling?  I had a suite of books to do in Calibri and forgot
about

any discomfort over time.  Then one landed on my desk that was written
in

Time New Roman (with single spacing after full stops).  I actually
couldn't

read it.  I had to change the fonts throughout to Calibri to review it.
My

fickle eyes had become "trained" to another font.

 

Our company has been happy to fall into line with Microsoft, and declare
our

new company standard to be Calibri, as everyone who sees a document in

Calibri says how clean and easy it is to read.  Not scientific, I know,
but

nor is most market research - it doesn't ask why people like what they
like,

it just asks what.  Dollars talk.

 

But I do know that, in time, something new will emerge, standards will

change all over again and our eyes will get retrained again.  Let's hope

that Nana Mouskouri glasses and Arial 14pt never make a comeback!

 

So, at the end of the day, I admit that I am one of those dangerous
radicals

who will take what I can from common wisdom, then make up my own mind -
and

change it on a whim.  Not many of us on earth at present.

 

Christine

 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:austechwriter-

> bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Brian A Clarke

> Sent: Tuesday, 23 October 2007 9:44 PM

> To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

> Subject: atw: Tell the U.S. Marines to Getz Tuft

> 

> Shouldn't we be asking the readability experts who actually have

> evidence

> on this sort of thing - rather than our chuntering on about how nice
it

> looks?

> Brian.

> 

 

No virus found in this outgoing message.

Checked by AVG Free Edition. 

Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.15.0/1076 - Release Date:
17/10/2007

7:53 PM

 

 

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