My initial reaction was to laugh at and mock this article about writers and their favorite fonts. But then I thought, wait, that sounds interesting.
Damn it.
What's your favorite font? What do you write in?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- Paul
- Paul Guest is the author of four volumes of poetry and a memoir. His debut, The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World, was awarded the 2002 New Issues Poetry Prize. His second collection, Notes for My Body Double, was awarded the 2006 Prairie Schooner Book Prize. His third collection, My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge, was published by Ecco Press/HarperCollins in 2008. His fourth collection, Because Everything Is Terrible, was published by Diode Editions. His poems have appeared in Harper's, The Paris Review, Poetry, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. His memoir, One More Theory About Happiness, was published by Ecco in May 2010 and selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program. The recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2007 Whiting Writers' Award, Guest lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
19 comments:
Favorite: probably Palatino, for aesthetics; good for chapbooks. Write in: Times, since it calls the least attention to itself. For the web: Ariel; seems the most readable.
oops I mean Arial, i.e. the typeface, not the angel.
Garamond 12! I have a poem somewhere to Garamond 12.
I am not sure why, but I have always composed and printed up my poems in Palatino. Always 14 pt for the titles and 12 point for the lines. Epigraphs or other header is always in 10 pt. This will sound weird, but once about a year ago, I drafted a new poem and then had to enter it onto a computer in a lab. The computer did not have Palatino. I spent 41 minutes going through fonts until I could find one as close to Palatino as possible. I realize this is absurd, but it is the truth.
Draft poems: Garamond (although i came to Garamond through a friend, who pointed out that loads of poetry books use Garamond. ego-trippingly, i began to use Garamond to "imagine the poems in a book". sigh.). Finished poems: Baskerville Old Face. i have to admit, i've grown tired of both Garamond and BOF, & am intrigued by the curves of Palatino. Draft Reviews: Book Antiqua (so big, makes me feel like i've _done_ something). Finished Reviews: sighly, Baskerville, you old hound.
Metta
Used to use Garamond (too shmancy). Then went to Rockwell (purely for the name). When that disappeared, migrated to Georgia (too red-statey). Lately I use Sylfaen (which is punk rock because it seems like I'm the only one in existence who does). 11-point so old curmedgeons can't read it. But Palatino is sexy too.
None of that matters because I do all my drafting by hand. A font which might be called "First-Grade Microscopic Print with Identical U's and V's."
Wonder if I could make money off it like Helvetica.
I'm currently using 12-point Georgia. I spent about three years using Palatino Linotype before that.
I really like seeing titles in bold Century Gothic.
Book Antiqua. Poems and resumes both.
I just did a few poems in Sylfaen, and I really like it, but before that I used Palantino, particularly for chapbooks.
In my little mini-books, I always use arial 8, because old people can read it.
I draft, always, in Garamond 12pt. I submit to journals in Garamond 12pt. I submit my ms, however, in Palatino 12pt. A mentor of mine told me the 'spacier' Palatino was better than Garamond for ms contests.... Time will tell if that works for me.
Good post, good question, Paul!
Serif faces: Minion. AGaramond--Adobe did a really elegant digital version of the classic. Bell. I also adore a lot of the Goudy versions. Berkeley. and I've set a couple of coffee table books in Bembo. New Century Schoolbook is what I set the newspaper in every week so I am wayyy over it. There is this great very light, pretty titling font called Diotima.
Sans: I'm very faddish with sans fonts. Lately, I've been using a lot of Century Gothic. Old standby Optima is looking a little dated but so pretty. GillSans is okay, but only in the lightest faces. I've never been a fan of helvetica. ack. typography heresy.
Fancy: Minion Titling, Zapfino, Edwardian, Delphi
Decorative: Woodtype Ornaments.
Most overused font in recent years: Copperplate. Lazy designers.
Oops. Asking me about typography is a lot like asking someone about their grandkids or their vacation cruise. Often there are pictures involved.
12 point Times New Roman, 18 point for titles.
It is helpful--and somehow encouraging--to see how the poem might look in a really nice journal.
Garamond 11 point for text and 18 point for titles. I think it's attractive.
I used to use Baskerville, but when I switched computers, Baskerville wasn't there. Now I'm sold on Garamond.
I now use Palatino 12 for everything, even titles. I mentioned on Cornshake's blog that I used to submit my manuscripts and individual poems in Courier.
Write in Hoefler Text, submit in Times New Roman. In letterpress, love Bembo. For the web, I started using Arial, though I find it ugly. Copperplate Light is preferred, but it doesn't show up correctly in various browsers.
Reminds me of how Hugo starts out in Triggering Town talking about pens, pencils, notepads, etc. I always loved that.
Jorie used to talk about how using a typewriter, especially a manual one, makes the line breaks so dramatic. Ding...cuh-chunk!
Anybody go analog when making their poems anymore?
Garamond or Palatino.
Poems I normally write in Times or Palatino, though I've tinkered with Garamond.
However, as you may or may not know, when it comes to screenplays, the choice has already been made for me and anyone else trying to write a screenplay: 12 pt. Courier. The "industry standard," which sounds odd to writers in other genres. But it's carved in stone. Write a screenplay in any other font, and no one will look at it.
I spent a few years with Times New Roman a la Anne Fadiman, but I now love High Tower Text. I also like Sylfaen.
Favourite is trebuche - very clean on screen as well as on paper
Generally use Times New Roman
Post a Comment