Okay I admit, I didn’t make that joke up. But I like it so I’ll “repost” it.
My recent post on cursive got me thinking about text again. In it, I briefly mentioned the common knowledge that sans-serif fonts were supposedly easier to read on a digital medium, whereas serif fonts were better in their printed form. Of course, the CSS class I had taken once also touted an ideal single-line character limit as the easiest to read. I was skeptical at the time, and talked about how to override the default WordPress line limit. Now, staring at what I consider to be a juvenile-looking default sans-serif font, I decided that needed changing too. In short–the Internet is wrong and I have to take matters into my own hands.
And so, you might have noticed that the fonts on this site are different now. After some trial and error, I decided upon “Freight Text”, based on nothing more than the fact that I found it the most visually pleasing.
I have no idea who develops fonts and what’s involved with the process of their standardization. That’s a topic for another day’s adventure through the interwebs. But I found this brief description:
“About Freight Text
Phil’s Fonts evolved from one of the most well known and respected photolettering studios in the industry – Phil’s Photo. We carry on the traditions and standards established by its founders. As the state of typography changes in the digital era, Phil’s Fonts continues its love affair with beautiful faces, making fine typography available to artists and communicators around the world.”
Apparently there’s some studio that makes these and people decide whether or not to adopt them? Whatever
Regardless, if you don’t have the font installed, your browser will revert to its default serif font:
{
font-family: “Freight Text”, serif;
color: #000000;
}
And that’s it, really. I changed the CSS for a number of elements. Sure, fonts might be a pointless argument, but in this specific instance, I’d rather choose a more sophisticated-looking variant over its overly-simplified modern counterpart.
–Simon