My Favorite Fonts

Since it came up (and I haven't guessed who brought it up, with nary a hint), I thought I'd write about fonts.

To set the record straight, I stopped using Verdana a long time ago, though I'm still quite partial to it. The fact that the blog displays text in Verdana is entirely incidental. I just don't have the time to figure out how to change it, nor what font to replace it with. Besides, the likelihood that other people will also have my font of choice (see below) isn't that great, so best to stick with whatever the Blogger template has to offer.

People who've seen me make presentations, mostly my former students, know that I experiment with the fonts that I use. Generally, I gravitate to a number of sans serif fonts: Britannic Bold, Helvetica and Tahoma are my mainstays. Since I switched over to a Mac, I've also included Zapfino in my font repertoire for titles and the like; yet seeing how it's beginning to pop up in lots of mainstream media I might have to look for a different fancy font. (Aside: if you're writing a rather lengthy document, use a font with serifs. It's easier on the eyes as the reader goes through it.)

But my favorite font right now, hands down, is Optima. It's apparently a proprietary font that comes stock on a Mac, which has been a source of frustration when sending documents or presentations. You've probably seen it in a couple of ads already without realizing it. I know I've spotted it on occasion.

If you know of a cool font, do share. So long as it's not Times New Roman.