Two basic principles have guided the simultaneous development of calligraphy, typefaces, and post-modern fonts—legibility and aesthetics. As you choose a font for your documents and website, you first must choose between legibility and aesthetics. The choice, however, should not seem altogether unfamiliar; you have been taught to make the choice since the first moment you became literate.
Remember when it was called penmanship?
The generation that came-of-age on “Dick and Jane” readers also devoted hours to perfecting the fine and difficult arts of spelling and penmanship, both of which our PCs now manage with ease. Just about every “baby-boomer” vividly can remember a green-and-yellow chart posted above the chalk board in every first- second, and third grade classroom across the United States and Canada. The chart showed the letters of the alphabet and the ten basic digits, and it featured little arrows that showed eager learners how to form the letters and numbers. In fourth and fifth grades, “cursive” letters replaced the “primary” letters, because industrialists recognized cursive writing as far more efficient than “manuscript” printing—the same principle that guided development of “chancery cursive” in seventeenth century courtrooms. The two styles of handwriting live on in Helvetica type faces and all the fonts labelled as “script.” Primary printing is far more legible than cursive; cursive is far more efficient—and aesthetic-- than primary printing.
To serif or not to serif
The term originates in medieval monks’ manipulation of their quills as they crafted their letters. If you ever have picked-up and experimented with a calligraphy pen, you immediately have noticed that the pen carries a distinctive “chisel” point instead of the ball to which your Bic has accustomed you. The chisel-point preserves the attributes of a quill, and the secret to good calligraphy lives in your ability to hold that straight chiselled edge at a perfect 45-degree angle to the paper. The angle creates the thin spots and the bulges in your letters as you curve your lines to form them. The “serif” adds an extra little flourish at the beginning or end of your tracing motion.
If you look carefully at Times New Roman and Helvetica placed side-by side, you will see that the letters’ basic formation remains constant, but Times New Roman adds serifs. As typefaces and fonts evolved, “serif” and “sans serif” distinguished different publishing houses and different kinds of texts. Serifs allegedly add art and dignity to a font. Baby-boomers saw the difference all the way through high school and college, but they probably did not recognize it: “Literature” books always used fonts with serifs; textbooks always used “sans serif”—clean and neat—fonts. Publishers reproduced “Literature,” part of the arts, with aesthetics in mind; they produced textbooks with a premium on legibility, which promotes easy comprehension.