Shocking anti-serifitism!
Published by Becky S September 6th, 2004 in style & grammarEveryone’s been dissin’ Alabama lately. Once again (for, like, the third time in a week), I will break the Good Grief! no politics rule and use microjournalism expertise to expose the rest of the story.
Bernard Kincaid, the mayor of Birmingham, has decreed that all City Hall e-mail correspondence shall henceforth be written in black, 14 point, Arial font.
The request came complete with a five-page attachment with step-by-step instructions for how employees should change the default font to suit his honor’s taste.“People have to read e-mails coming from City Hall,” [Kincaid] said. “Do you know how hard it is to read blue, 10-point type?”
Font mandates can be a good thing. All US citizens should be happy that the State Department ditched Courier−it was so embarrassing for us. However, Mayor Kincaid is obviously an anti-serifite and should be voted out of office at the first opportunity.
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Nice use of font, Becky!
How deliciously absurd. I plan to set the new Naval standard and send all of my work e-mail in Wingdings, size 72.
Good idea! If the Navy sends e-mail in Wingdings, the bad guys won’t be able read it without secret decoder rings.
What this country needs is more bright young people like Dave. Has anyone else considered how our font strategy could impact the war on terror?
So, is there any penalty is I sent Mayor Kincaid a nasty email in red, size 14, Sylfaen?
Unless you’re a citizen of Birmingham, I don’t think there’s a penalty. However, don’t be surprised if he doesn’t answer your letter.
In my time, I’ve produced some educational publications for healthcare consumers and the primary rule for appearance is that a serif anchors the eye and makes the text more easily read. My previous VP insisted on correspondence in Arial. I begrudgingly complied, but took comfort in the fact that he was putting himself at a disadvantage. What a maroon.
From the looks of the comments, I think we all agree that Times New Roman sucks.
I dunno. I do all technical documentation in Times New Roman, even though it’s a bit conservative. My e-mail font is Palatino because I like the capital ‘Y.’ For a long time, boss-across-the-hall couldn’t understand why I kept sending him e-mail that ended with YYYYYY.
I’m with Suzette on the serifs–I learned in tech writing courses that the serifs “lead” the eye from one character to the next, making a body of text easier to read.
Jen, are you a serif or sans-serif woman? If you like serifs, what’s your preferred alternative to Times NR? Also, I belive you are politically minded. Will you be investigating the presidential candidates’ positions on this issue?
I’m a serif type girl and all my outlines, cover letters and resumes are in Sylfaen. (Of course, maybe that’s why I don’t have a job lined up for post-graduation yet.) And now that you’ve asked, I’ll be sending a letter to the candidates asking their opinions on this matter. Perhaps I’ll be swayed by the results!
I myself am a heavy advocate for plain-text emails for the following reasons:
* They are not HTML-based, thus less likely to get marked as spam.
* They are not HTML-based, thus less likely to infect computers with viri.
* They are not HTML-based, thus less likely to allow some marketing looser track you with inline images.
* They are not HTML-based, thus take way less space on you HD to store, and download much faster.
* Plus, they allow the reader of the email to read the it in any font they so choose.
I mean okay, with HTML you can be _slightly_ more stylistic (and thus informative) but is it worth all the above headaches?
Yes.
I appreciate the concerns of the plain-text e-mail advocates, but really, what fun is that?Disk space is cheap. Most of us can spare some room for HTML e-mail.Virus-wise, is getting HTML e-mail any more dangerous than just web surfing? I admit, I don’t know the answer. However, I auto-update virus updates and MS fixes as they become available. Nothing is foolproof, but why stop using features just because there’s a possibility of something going wrong?I’ve never had problems with HTML mail getting marked as spam. That I know of. Holy shit, what if Viggo Mortensen sent me an HTML e-mail, and it got marked as spam?Are marketing losers tracking me? Don’t know, don’t care. Everyone’s tracking everything about everybody these days. I’m more worried about the government than I am about marketers who try to find out which e-mails we open.
I want my pretty fonts! That being said, anyone who sends professional correspondence in Comic Sans ought to be fired.
Ok, I know this posts is nearly 6 months old, BUT.. my boss sent a memo around the office saying that bill summaries shall no longer be in Arial, but shall be 12 point Times New Roman! I hate them both, but at least TNR is easier to read.
Nothing off fire did marketing, nothing money into made.