how do you guys choose text body font?

zhangweiwu · OOo Enthusiast Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 132

Hello. My question is very common but I really don't find a satisfying article about it yet.

I don't know the difference between fonts. All serif fonts looks the same to me and all san-serif (gothic) fonts looks the same to me. Some one says "Helvetic looks better then Arial", I simply cannot sense it and cannot admire the beauty of the 'better' font. The same as "Utopia" and "Times New Roman" and "Nimbus Roman". Although I tried to print them down and look at a paper full of text of this and that font, they really do not make a lot of difference. Some may look nicer then the other, but I cannot tell why it looks nicer then the other.

I think choosing body text font is something I only need to do once, after the first time, unless there are better reasons, I'll be keeping using the chosen font forever. Perhaps because I am Chinese, the latin text difference is not so noticable for me. Finally I end up using Gentium font (http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=Gentium) the very simple reason is this font's author very much like to talk about his font and I get a PDF file very detailed said why his font is better then others. I read his PDF explanation why he is better, then I used it.

Please make some comment on what you chose for text body font, and drop some comment on my current choice (Gentium) and suggestions. Thanks a lot!

Kaaredyret · Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 3:21 am Post subject:

I use Baramond a lot:

http://www.geocities.com/baramondfont/
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9point9 · Moderator Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 3875 Location: UK

Beyond readability the only other factor is aesthetics. This is a matter of opinion, not fact. I just use Times New Roman and Arial. You can do more by changing the line spacing and paragraph style than a simple font change can.
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Untel · Power User Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 55

Westland · Super User Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 562

zhangweiwu wrote:

Kaaredyret · Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:15 am Post subject:

Remember always to judge a font on the print on paper, not screen (unless your audience is going to read it on screen in a PDF file of course). There is a good Lorem Ipsum generator here:

http://www.lipsum.com/

jrkrideau · Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:29 am Post subject:

Kaaredyret · Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:42 am Post subject:

LOL...

Oh, remember that there is also some dummy text available in Writer:

Type dt and then F3. DT stands for dummy text, of course.

I think this dummy text is less confusing Smile

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zhangweiwu · OOo Enthusiast Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 132

thank you, Kaaredyret, now I used Lorem Ipsum created a publication (using OOO) and now I can carefully see how the text look with other design elements. After looked at them again, I'd like to say Gentium is still the font I like to use, it look nice with other design elements. (I think nice.) Have a look:

http://weiwu.freeshell.org/font_effect

Perhas I like gentium because it is "better" with my Chinese sense of beauty.
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Recommend Free Software Chinese fonts:
Serif: UMing of CJK Unifonts
Sans: Droid Sans Fallback

Zhang Weiwu [OpenOffice 3 & Linux]

zhangweiwu · OOo Enthusiast Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 132

For Westland: there are several categories of Chinese fonts to choose

Ming ti (song ti), the Ming dynasty font => compare to serif
He Ti, the black font => compare to gothic
Kai Ti, the hand-written formal text font => compare to some Western font which look like hand written but looks clean, formal and clear
Xing ti, the script font => compare to Script fonts
Wei Bei, the formal hand-written text before Kai Ti => nothing to compare
Li Shu, the formal hand-written text before Wei Bei => nothing to compare
Yuan Ti, the modern gothic font with round corner => compare to a round san-serif

Generally, there are more categories of fonts, and in each category there are less number of fonts. That is, more categories, less total number of fonts.

Why we have more categories and less number of fonts in each category and less total number of fonts? Thank about how many ideographs are there in a font, to make a font is certainly not one year or two years work!
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Recommend Free Software Chinese fonts:
Serif: UMing of CJK Unifonts
Sans: Droid Sans Fallback

Zhang Weiwu [OpenOffice 3 & Linux]

Bhikkhu Pesala · Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:47 am Post subject:

Westland · Super User Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 562

I've checked your example:

Kaaredyret · Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:19 pm Post subject:

Nice work, zhangweiwu, it looks professional!

Yes, he did use Draw I can see (press control-D in Acrobat Reader to see info about the document, fonts used, etc).
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zhangweiwu · OOo Enthusiast Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 132

Yes I did use Draw. I was looking for a MS Publisher replacement after switched to Linux and I had to choose between using Draw or Writer (Scribus is too hard for my level of understanding). Although there are many disadvantages comparing to use Writer, I finally still think Draw fits publications better, for it's page oriented layout, thumbnail and shape styling feature. and everything (even a line) can include text

It is not difficult at all to make your publication look good with OO Draw: just "keep it simple", don't mess up with the time-cosuming flashy design that OO Draw cannot make. Besides, the customers are tired of flashy design. A good publication should be a simple publication and I don't see why I cannot use Draw:)

Good suggestion on EPS! I have been wondering why the EPS logo always seems to have problems. We also have SVG logo which OOO doesn't handle as well.

TO Bhikkhu Pesala: Gentium doesn't have a bold typeface, I am aware of it. However I am used to the fact that MOST CHINESE FONTS DON'T HAVE Bold typeface and I am used to working around them.
_________________
Recommend Free Software Chinese fonts:
Serif: UMing of CJK Unifonts
Sans: Droid Sans Fallback

Zhang Weiwu [OpenOffice 3 & Linux]

Kaaredyret · Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:32 pm Post subject:

I still think you should give Scribus a chance as well, its PS, EPS and SVG support is very good and getting better. If you look at the developer version of scribus (scribus-cvs) then the menu structure is getting more organized, and actually its not that difficult to understand.

I am pretty tired of the poor SVG support in OpenOffice, so Scribus is popular here.

InkScape, Gimp and Scribus are strong together.
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