Writer - Best Font Ever...Don't Lister to the Critics

users
#1

Ahoy my esteemed and steamy mates,

I'm looking for your experienced suggestions of which font(s) have you
found to be most clearly legible?

There are fonts you can see clearly even though they're in size 8 or
smaller or from a great distance.

I've noticed this as well on street signs. Some characters, even though
larger, are less legible because of style and not size than others.

I often use Bookman Old Style for that reason. I find Times New Roman
blends so it's less legible.

Anyone work ( or have a life partner, relative or fried) who works at an ad
agency?

Ad agencies go to great lengths in determining which font style and size to
use on consumer products as well as which colors are most alluring,
calming, friendly, inviting, etc.

Admittedly, there are personal preferences but there is also empirical
evidence gleaned from focus groups and studies re: which font styles/size
and colors affect people in what ways.

So, let's have our own focus group, shall we?!

What's your choice for most legible font style/size/color - and why?

Thank you - Merci- Gracias - Grazi - Domo!

Charles.

#2

For print media, I like Bookman, Century Schoolbook, and Palatino for legibility.

I'm still wrestling with finding my favorites for onscreen work. I like OFL Sorts Mill Goudy, and Baskerville (which I find is too fragile for laser print work). I also like Verdana as a legible sans serif for onscreen work.

A good Times alternative is Linux Libertine, which has the same general letter shape as Times, but is not as condensed. I use it for my general business work.

Virgil

#3

Ahoy my esteemed and steamy mates,

I'm looking for your experienced suggestions of which font(s) have you
found to be most clearly legible?

The "ideal typeface" is one of those arguments in which you'll find as many answers (if not more) as people answering :wink:

Here it is a somewhat random and clearly incomplete list of awesome typefaces with a F(L)OSS licence:

I love EBGaramond, but be aware that it has no bold nor bold italic (yet)
http://www.georgduffner.at/ebgaramond/download.html

A really nice "old style" font full of OpenType magic is Cochineal
http://www.ctan.org/pkg/cochineal

In fact, I can say that any font from Michael Sharpe is a Good Font. As an example, if you want to be able to print at low resolution but with good results you may try his fork of Bitstream Charter, xcharter
http://www.ctan.org/pkg/xcharter

If you want a "Times better than Times" I highly recommend Libertinus, a fork of Linux Libertine/Biolinum
https://github.com/khaledhosny/libertinus

Another "times alike" font is Stix Two
http://stixfonts.org/

A great, original font full of OpenType specialities is Vollkorn
http://vollkorn-typeface.com/

and don't forget the TeX Gyre collection and the Latin Modern family, both from the GUST foundry
http://www.gust.org.pl/projects/e-foundry/tex-gyre
http://www.gust.org.pl/projects/e-foundry/latin-modern

Have fun!

Regards,
Ricardo

#4

Everyone has access to different fonts, but here is the "best" one[s] I just tried.

I am writing this from a 15" laptop at 1360x768 resolution. I have the Writer document viewing size marked at 100%.

I tried a number of fonts using 8 point font size.

The best font I have installed on my system is the DejaVu Sans family. The smallest shown was the Condensed version. 7 point started to blur a little on my screen, and 6 point was no good at all.

That said, when I printed the sample text using 6 point DejaVu Sans Condensed on a 1200dpi, it was clearly readable from 18 inches away.

I know others may have a different font that works best for them, but this is the font that I have installed that reads best at 6-8 points of size.

#5

What language?
What writing system?
Used where?
For what type of content?

writing Afrikaans, when using either the Arabic or the Latin writing system.

For everything other than Hebrew, Greek, and English, I use Google's (or
is it Alphabet's?) NoTo font family. Their primary, if not only virtue,
is that it is pan-Unicode.

jonathon

#6

You will find there is a difference between legibility and readability.
Legibility deals with how easily recognizable given letters are.
However, when we read, we don't read individual letters. Rather, we read
words or, more accurately, groups of words, at a time. When reading,
word shapes are more important than letter shapes.

Thus, a sans-serif typeface can be very legible, but not necessarily
readable. The serifs add visual information to word shapes. For example,
in a sans-serif type, there is little visible difference between the
word "Ill" (that's "ill" as in "sick.") and a roman numeral 3 (III).
Serifs make the two distinguishable.

So, if you're creating a street sign, a sans-serif type in all upper
case letters might be most legible, but I would hate to read a book in
ALL UPPER CASE SANS SERIF TYPE.

Likewise, Bookman Old Style is very legible, but it wouldn't be my first
choice for a novel length book. It's very legibility could work against
it for long-term reading.

If you want to dive into this world (let me warn you, it's addictive and
can feed obsessiveness), I would recommend Robert Bringhurst's excellent
book, "The Elements of Typographic Style."

Virgil

#7

On Mon, 12 Jun 2017 16:04:04 +0000
Virgil Arrington <cuyfalls@hotmail.com> dijo:

I would recommend Robert Bringhurst's excellent book, "The Elements
of Typographic Style."

+1

#8

I've been using SIL's Gentium, both Basic and Plus with nice results
for short to medium docs.

Dave

#9

Thanks for the link to Cochineal. It's a really nice typeface.

Virgil

#10

I installed NoTo on one of my laptops.

There are 36 .otf and .ttf files in my .font folder. It "feels" like twice as many as I scroll through them within Writers font list drop-down. I may just archive them, or part of the list depending on which ones are OK for my needs.

As I was told years ago, select the look-and-feel of a document geared for the specific readers. Actually, I even have some fonts archived that are designed for readers with Dyslexia.