FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for January 28, 2021

Comic Sans! Trust me! Instant A+!

To serif or not to serif? That is the question. Whether ’tis nobler …

My professors docked you if you didn’t use Times New Roman. Aside from the typography class. They’d fail you if you even used Comic Sans as filler font.

I always let the computer decide what font i was using. If the teacher complained i just explained that it was default of the computer.

Helvetica is soooooooo 1970s…

Back when, I used to spend time choosing fonts. It was a new world then and it was such a nice option. Previously only the IBM Selectric typewriter had that option, you could change the font by changing the type ball. Instead of separate type levers(?), it had a ball with the type on it that rotated to strike the right character.

The paper has to be 5 pages. Try Tahoma, 72 Point with 2 inch margins all around.

I’m geeky enough to have a favorite font. Tahoma, 11 point. Easy to read even for a geriatric type like me.

As late as college, I was using a typewriter. No worry about fonts.

The two most common formats for report writing, APA and MLA, both insist on:Times New Roman, 12 pointDouble spaceBlack text (no funny colours in the fonts, not for emphasis, not for any reason whatsoever)White background (no funny colours for highlighting or page background for any reason whatsoever)Bold, italic, and underline confined to specific set situations.If you use anything else, kiss goodbye to up to 10% of the grade. There are also rules about first line of the paragraph indents, about citations, and how to present the bibliography. Break the rules, lose some points.APA and MLA are currently in their 7th editions, they would have been around 2nd or 3rd in the early 1990s.I once saw a paper where the student had been… creative. Optima 10 point, space and a half, no indents, red text on yellow highlight for emphasis, a unique (and not very comprehensible) method of citation, a bibliography which didn’t contain all the references cited but did contain references not cited… and lots of red ink all over after the instructor got done. It was being used as an awful example of what to never, ever, do.

Ariel and Times New Roman are the two that’s easiest for me to read. All of the others make my eyes strain.

These days (unless I need something specific) I just use the default New Times Roman.

Sweat the small stuff.

Peter get the work done and stop procrastinating.

A typewriter would get rid of that impediment, unless it was a Selectric

Choosing a font is like ordering wine. Develop a subject like you would a meal and order the font or wine to match.

ℱ☩

As long as it’s in a plastic folder, it shouldn’t matter. Or so many of my students believed.

I had a coworker who would sit down to write a 15-minute memo, and spend hours choosing fonts, bullet indents, etc.

At my schools they told us to use Times New Roman, took the guesswork out of it

Several of my kids’ teachers required Times New Roman, 12 pt font, double spaced, 1 inch margins. I’m pretty sure that saved a lot of wasted time.

I volunteered in a second grade class once. I’m pretty sure font selection was the only thing most of the kids did during the writing block.

Personally, I go for Georgia, the only comes-with-Windows Roman typeface with Old Style numbers—so much more elegant and readable. Headings optionally in Candara, Sans Serif also with Old Style numbers.

Uh, usually the teacher requires a specific font… Usually Times New Roman.