I have to admit something here….I have been on a personal crusade to proliferate this font!  For you non English majors, that means I like it and want to see more of it.  Hasn’t everyone been looking for an alternative to the all too common Arial font?  This font is called Microsquare.  It is a great sans serif alternative to Arial and other over-used fonts. Here is a sample:

If you work really hard at your high school sport or other academic activity you might be able to get one of these sewn to your jacket!  We called it a letter jacket and this font is called Letterman.  The Minnesota High Schools represented here are Anoka, Elk River, Brainerd and Princeton.  We publish a lot of high school yearbooks and most still use this font to represent the school letter.

We have all used this font when we want to make something look regal or parliamentary.  The Old English font is probably a thousand years old.  Originally written by hand or engraved, it was also called Blackletter.  Can you imagine how long it would take to write a handwritten letter or book using this script?  Thanks to modern day word processing, we can switch from Times New Roman to Old English with a click of the mouse!  Back then, only the wealthy could afford to own books.  Now, anyone can buy and own hard and soft cover books for very little cost!  We have used this font on book covers that we foil stamp.  It creates a classic look.  Some people use a font like this as the first letter to begin a story or chapter in their book.

Here are some samples of the Old English font in use:

Ok, if the picture of the dinosaur and the “scary” part didn’t give it away I will just have to tell you!  The font is Jurassic, technically BD Jurassic on my computer.  I just saw one of the exciting movies of the summer, “Jurassic World”.  Obviously, this is the latest installment in the Jurassic Park series.

Take a look at the text from the movie image on the right.   Do you think this font is close enough to the movie font to have been actually based on it?  The text at the bottom is the Jurassic font.

The book cover for the original novel is on the left.  I never read the books, but I’m sure they would have been good too.

Even though this font is still heavily used, I think it’s better days are behind us.  The font we are considering today is Monotype Corsiva!  Personally, I think it has always looked nice and it probably still has it’s place in society somewhere.  To me it screams a little bit old fashioned and 1990’s.  You would never want to write the body of your book text with this font but it might look nice for book chapter headings, book cover titles or for poetry books.  There really are no great alternatives in most basic font libraries.  I would like to see someone develop a more contemporary version of this font!

What do Wells Fargo, the San Francisco 49ers and Christian Brothers Automotive all have in common?  They all use the Clarendon Font in their logos!  There are many other organizations that have used different versions of Clarendon over the past years.  The German Empire used the Clarendon font for proclamations during World War I.  Bold versions have been used by the U.S. National Park service for traffic signs.  Even though it is a serif font, I don’t think I would recommend it for the body of your paragraph text when printing a book.  Oh, if you have not heard of Christian Brothers Automotive, they are a top quality auto repair business with franchises throughout the country.  A friend of mine owns the one in Andover, MN so I thought I would give him a plug!

To kick off our font of the week we will start with an easy one!  Many people have used this font, especially kids.  The name of the font: Comic Sans.  Reflecting on our last post about fonts I would guess that the “sans” refers to the fact that it is a sans serif font.  While I don’t recommend this font for the body of a novel, there have been some kids and adults that have used Comic Sans for their children’s picture book stories.  And of course, it has been a staple for birthday party invitations for years!

To start off this blog about fonts for books here is an answer to a simple question:

What is the difference between Serif and Sans Serif fonts?

The answer is actually very simple and, for the most part, easy to recognize.  A Serif font has “feet” or added extensions like the top and bottom of the Times New Roman serif font example in the illustration.  The word “sans” (in French) means without.  So sans serif would be without the serifs or “feet”.  A classic example of a sans serif font would be Arial.

When do I use a serif font vs sans serif?  Typically, you use a serif font for the body of your paragraph text.  The “feet” make the reading easier on your eyes and make following the text on the pages of a book easier.  Sans serif fonts are used for headings, captions and text within tables.