A theory that I've just made up.

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SamNichols

New Member
Location
Colne, Lancs
As an aspiring academic, I have to read pages and pages of online journals, word documents and PDFs. In my other role as a consultant for certain charities, I have to read pages and pages of governing documents, constitutions and briefing papers. Whilst not really noticing it, I have realised that I start to judge people by the typefaces that they format their documents in - thinking deeper about the judgments that I make, I have decided that the font does in fact give us very subtle clues about a person's personality. I have decided to make a new personality classification system (let's call it the 'Nichols typeface measure of personality' for now) which defines a personality by the font that they use 70% of the time. I have so far decided upon 6 types:
1) 'Times New Roman' - I am incredibly lazy, and tend to rely on Microsoft Word to format my document. The Paperclip is God to me. I like authority figures and tend to keep in line with societal norms.
2) 'Arial' - I like my writing to be easily accessible to all readers, even dyslexics. I have a liberal bent.
3) 'Tahoma' - I'm a bit like an arial user, but tend to ignore authority and guidelines. I roughly agree with the ideas of equal opportunities, but don't quite respect them enough to completely follow all the rules in the guidelines I get given.
4) 'Book Antiqua '- I am a person of traditional tastes and like my life orderly. I own a fountain pen and am possibly a barrister.
5) 'Wing Dings' - 2 readings may be apparent. 1) I wish to be a cryptographer but can't be bothered to learn the trade. 2) I'm a little zany and prefer to leave the formatting to other people, I don't know how to change the formatting on my PC, so I guess and hope for the best.
6) Helvetica - I am a mac user, and hence I am more than slightly smug. I do, or want to, work in the creative arts and like to use photographic software. I don't use a word processor enough to have any inclination to change my default.

Anyone else want to add to my measure, or want to suggest changes to my 6 personality types?
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
A typer of Times New Roman writes:

Users of Time New Roman hate computers because they don't keep things simple. So I stick to TNR because it looks familiar and sounds vaguely patriotic. Arial users are probably Guardian readers.


(Personally I'd like some sort of Anglo-Saxon script complete with archaic letters.)
 

Keith Oates

Janner
Location
Penarth, Wales
Another Times New Roman writes:

I use it because it seems more neat than a lot of the others, coupled with the fact that my company forbids it's use!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I am a Gill man...ever since my art school days.

Helvetica is 'retro cool' :?: but I have used Eurostile for some stuff, or indeed Times.

Luckily, being able to mix faces up, size, weight etc in the name of design is not the same as body text. Without a doubt, everyone relies on Times to add 'gravitas' to their writing.

Go for Verdana to enable clear readability on the web - for when this thesis is published in 6pt...

I CANT STAND the use of the 'handwriting' fonts Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrgghhhhh!

We live in interesting times - we are the new Romans :tongue:
 

bonj2

Guest
Courier: Brash, probably wears dark sunglasses even when not sunny, a smart suit but no tie, likely to be a 'wideboy' or likes to be seen as one.
Comic Sans MS: Has sympathy with probable audience, such as if they are remedials.
 

Peyote

New Member
It's a good theory Sam, I'm going to try it out on the next few memos, letters and faxes I get.

I tend to use Arial more than anything else, though I used to be a Times New Roman user. Not sure what that says about me!

Bonj - I agree about the Comic Sans MS, it reminds me of my v. early schooldays!
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
spesh][quote=Andy in Sig said:
(Personally I'd like some sort of Anglo-Saxon script complete with archaic letters.)

Do either of the first two selections at the link below float your boat?

http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=anglo+saxon[/quote]

I like the first one more.

BTW I don't know if you're interested in this sort of thing but there's a website where the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has been continued for modern times. I'm afraid I don't have the link but a bit of googling should find it.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Andy in Sig said:
(Personally I'd like some sort of Anglo-Saxon script complete with archaic letters.)

You mean Runes? That's the script type, not the 'mystic fortelling' type.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_alphabet

I have a friend who studied Runic inscriptions for his MSc, he probably does have runes on his Mac.

I think I'd like to re-establish Ogham...

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ogham.htm

I'm a Times New Roman/Arial user mainly - TNR because it's the default, Arial because it's nice to look at.

Tip I was given about making academic posters was to use serifs in titles, and sans-serifs in text, or vice versa, so they fit the bill.
 

radger

Veteran
Location
Bristol
ok, how about this?

for on-screen, I like to use Arial or Verdana (i have grown used to verdana as it is our standard screen font at work)

For print, i prefer Palatino Linotype or Garamond, which are just slightly nicer versions of TNR (IMO)

please classify me :tongue:

I used to work somewhere the standard font was comic sans. i couldn't actually bring myself to send letters written in it, and i left as soon as i could
 

rikki

Legendary Member
Apparently TNR is more readable on paper (than other generally available fonts) while Arial is more legible on screen. Or so I'm told by pedants with whom I have worked.

In my office we use TNR for letters, Arial for schedules (Excel) and for club stuff and personal letters I have started using Verdana.

However radger's comment " For print, i prefer Palatino Linotype or Garamond, which are just slightly nicer versions of TNR (IMO) " piques my interest in a slightly nicer version of TNR for office use.
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
Arch said:
Andy in Sig said:
(Personally I'd like some sort of Anglo-Saxon script complete with archaic letters.)

You mean Runes? That's the script type, not the 'mystic fortelling' type.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_alphabet

I have a friend who studied Runic inscriptions for his MSc, he probably does have runes on his Mac.

I think I'd like to re-establish Ogham...

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ogham.htm

I'm a Times New Roman/Arial user mainly - TNR because it's the default, Arial because it's nice to look at.

Tip I was given about making academic posters was to use serifs in titles, and sans-serifs in text, or vice versa, so they fit the bill.

No I just meant the style of the latin letters used in the chronicle but with the two letters used for the aspirated and unaspirated "th" (which IMO we still need in modern written English) and the combined a and e for the proper northern sound of "a".
 
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