Miscellaneous

A few days ago, I thought there were only two typefaces designed for on-screen reading: Georgia (with serifs) and Verdana (sans serif). But if you?re running Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Vista, you have more choices: six new fonts forming Microsoft?s ClearType collection. Ken Adams dug into them a few days ago, and underwent a conversion from Times New Roman to Calibri ? a most attractive sans serif font. To learn about the new fonts and the ClearType technology behind them, read Ken?s post and this article on Poynter Online.

Due to court rules, litigators will likely have to stick with serif fonts, at least for text. The ClearType collection offers two: Cambria and Constantina. According to the Poynter article, Cambria is designed to serve as an ?all-purpose workhorse text face,? suitable for most business applications. Constantina is designed to look consistent (and consistently beautiful) in both print and on-screen applications. If you?re running Vista or Office 2007, you may want to experiment with them.

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p.s. E-mail from Ken: ?Your post today misses one important aspect of the ClearType fonts?you can use them if you have Office 2003 and you download the compatibility pack. (I include a link in my post.) That?s what I?ve done, because I haven?t yet shifted to Office 2007.?

Another point important for those not enamored of Vista: According to Microsoft, Windows XP supports ClearType.