what is a good font for browing metafilter?

August 17, 2006 4:47 PM

Forgive me if this is too chatty, but I feel like it's a valid question (if it belongs in AskMe, kindly let me know and I'll post it in a couple of days).

What is a good font with which to browse Metafilter? I know, I should just be using Tahoma or Arial or whatever is the default, but what are my options, and what does everyone else use? Something easy on the eyes but just a little different from everything else - like MeFi, I guess.

Again, apologies if this isn't really an appropriate area for this sort of thing. I'm still (relatively) new at this.
posted by rossination to MetaFilter-Related at 4:47 PM (70 comments total)

The answer better be goddamned verdana, or a whole day's worth of work on the metafilter album liner notes is goin' out the window...

grumble
posted by interrobang at 4:52 PM on August 17, 2006

I use comic sans ms.
posted by bob sarabia at 4:54 PM on August 17, 2006

Everything makes so much more sense in Wingdings.
posted by matthewr at 4:57 PM on August 17, 2006

goddamned verdana, interrobang. goddamned verdana.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:05 PM on August 17, 2006

"Everything makes so much more sense in Wingdings."
posted by matthewr

Heretic!! Windgings2 reigns supreme!!
posted by Megafly at 5:08 PM on August 17, 2006

interrobang: Ha! Great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ. Glad we're not in the same pool. That would be embarassing.
posted by absalom at 5:11 PM on August 17, 2006

*tsk*
Do I really need to spell it out for you?
posted by maryh at 5:11 PM on August 17, 2006

WEBDings.
I use Trebuchet MS.
posted by boo_radley at 5:23 PM on August 17, 2006

absolom: there is more afoot than you realize.
posted by cortex at 5:23 PM on August 17, 2006

Also, Perpetua Bold Italic. You can't not love it.
posted by cortex at 5:24 PM on August 17, 2006

Yeah, I realized about that. I just thought it was vaporware. I'm still waiting for Mean Time to come out.
posted by absalom at 5:40 PM on August 17, 2006

Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:43 PM on August 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

Palatino makes everyone and everything a little more elegant, or there's always Optima for a san-serif. : >
posted by amberglow at 5:52 PM on August 17, 2006

Silkscreen
posted by fire&wings at 5:56 PM on August 17, 2006

Verdana. Because it's a good screen font.

bunch of good pangrams here
posted by Rhomboid at 6:04 PM on August 17, 2006

I use Georgia. It gives bad posts a sort of staid, upright air. Sort of like that old Daily Show bit with kids reading transcripts from pundit shows, except more like Old Southern Gentlemen reading transcripts from boring Flame Wars.
posted by muddgirl at 6:09 PM on August 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

Come. Try a bunch and see what you like, is the answer. (I use Verdana 9pt and 7pt.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:18 PM on August 17, 2006

Er, 'come on'.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:18 PM on August 17, 2006

I use Georgia, too. Very readable.
posted by Zozo at 6:21 PM on August 17, 2006

I use Georgian myself.

თბილისი კავკასიის რეგიონის მნიშვნელოვანი ინდუსტრიული, სოციალური და კულტურული ცენტრია და ბოლო დროს ერთ-ერთი უმნიშვნელოვანესი stavrosthewonderchicken კვანძი ხდება გლობალური ენერგომატარებლებისა და სავაჭრო პროექტებისთვის. ქალაქი ისტორიული აბრეშუმის დიდი გზის ერთ-ერთ მარშრუტზე მდებარეობს და მნიშვნელოვანი სავაჭრო/სატრანზიტო ცენტრის პოზიცია უჭირავს რუსეთის ჩრდილო კავკასიას, თურქეთსა და mathowie ტრანსკავკასიის სომხეთისა და აზერბაიჯანის რესპუბლიკების გადაკვეთაზე სტრატეგიული მდებარეობით. და რომელსაც შედეგად იმდროინდელი საქართველოს პრეზიდენტის ედუარდ შევარდნაძის გადადგომა მოჰყვა. LOL!
posted by languagehat at 6:31 PM on August 17, 2006 [2 favorites]

I use Verdana 12 & 10, and whenever I see mefi while logged out — in that split second before I begin to hyperventilate and spastically click around trying to figure out why I could have possibly logged out — the page looks really weird with its tiny fonts.

If you can find the Windows Vista fonts, floating around the interwebs, "Calibri" is a great screen font. The other six designed for Vista are quite lovely, too. They all look like crap unless you have ClearType on, though, but you already have that on, right?
posted by blacklite at 6:34 PM on August 17, 2006

I use Georgian myself.

sigh
posted by blacklite at 6:35 PM on August 17, 2006

Lucida Blackletter for that Ye Olde Metafilter style!
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 6:35 PM on August 17, 2006

anything non-western, to be certain.
posted by casconed at 6:56 PM on August 17, 2006

What font should I use to read War and Peace?
posted by Meatbomb at 7:02 PM on August 17, 2006

georgia 10/9 here.
posted by juv3nal at 7:06 PM on August 17, 2006

Optima here. It's purty.
posted by emelenjr at 7:26 PM on August 17, 2006

Second vote for Optima.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 7:31 PM on August 17, 2006

Call me crazy, but what in the name of FSM is stopping you from changing your preferences to various fonts and seeing which ones you like?

Unless you misunderstand how fonts work and you think you can type in the name of a font which isn't on your computer and magically have that font appear?
posted by AmbroseChapel at 7:35 PM on August 17, 2006

This thread makes me happy, because I was looking for more fonts to make power points in.
posted by absalom at 7:45 PM on August 17, 2006

Third for optima. It's super-purty.
posted by zerokey at 7:54 PM on August 17, 2006

We can change the font?
posted by yhbc at 7:55 PM on August 17, 2006

What's a font?
posted by dg at 8:00 PM on August 17, 2006

absalom: try The Printed Word. It's perfect for PowerPoint.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:06 PM on August 17, 2006

I READ MEFI VIA TELETYPE STOP

posted by hangashore at 8:16 PM on August 17, 2006 [2 favorites]

posted by blue_beetle at 8:43 PM on August 17, 2006 [2 favorites]

I'm also a big fan of Georgia. It's not distractingly fancy, it's designed for the screen, and it's not fucking ugly like Verdana.
posted by moss at 8:57 PM on August 17, 2006

Sorry, goddamned Verdana.
posted by moss at 8:58 PM on August 17, 2006

Goddamned Verdana was designed for the screen, too, and by the same guy who designed Georgia.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:05 PM on August 17, 2006

Franklin Gothic Medium for most of the body text, with Batang as the small text.
posted by crunchland at 9:21 PM on August 17, 2006

Also Georgia, 12 and 10. I think you have your answer.

"...ClearType on"

I'd suspect that it's still a minority of mefites who are using LCD monitors. So, no, most of them should not be using ClearType. (But those with LCD monitors, turn it on immediately.)
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 10:28 PM on August 17, 2006

Cleartype increases legibility significantly on my 19inch CRT at home. Sub-pixel hoohah notwithstanding.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:01 PM on August 17, 2006

Cleartype can cause weird artifacts on colored backgrounds, so if you keep the blue blue, as you should, it might not look that great.

Also, I find anti-aliased fonts look terrible in medium sizes (other then very small or very large).
posted by delmoi at 11:19 PM on August 17, 2006

Akzidenz-Grotesk
posted by shoepal at 11:19 PM on August 17, 2006

Goddamned Verdana was designed for the screen, too, and by the same guy who designed Georgia.

Oh, yes, I know--I meant to distinguish Georgia within the group of fonts designed for the screen. That said, I'll admit my hatred of Verdana is purely a matter of individual taste, and certainly Matthew Carter generally does amazing work. So, allow me to present the weak and cowardly calm and reasonable version of my previous post:

"If, like me, you have an irrational dislike of Verdana, you might try Georgia instead. It's still good for reading on the screen, but also looks nicer, to my eye at least."
posted by moss at 12:06 AM on August 18, 2006

font?
posted by TwelveTwo at 2:04 AM on August 18, 2006

sigh

I think you mean საი.
posted by languagehat at 5:23 AM on August 18, 2006

Whoa, I just changed to Georgia, and I like it! Like liquorice, I need to take Preferences a little more seriously.

Serifs... pretty, pretty serifs...
posted by languagehat at 5:24 AM on August 18, 2006

Déjà vu.

Anyway, I'm another Optima fan, although I still maintain that everyone should try it in Zapfino just once for shits and giggles. God, I love that font.
posted by chrismear at 5:47 AM on August 18, 2006

If you have XP, and IE you can tune your Cleartype and see samples of Verdana, Georgia, Ariea, and something called Comic Sans MS.
posted by ?! at 6:01 AM on August 18, 2006

Arial, Arial, Arial
posted by ?! at 6:01 AM on August 18, 2006

I used Garamond for a long time, and found that it greatly increased my appreciation for the site and decreased my desire to engage in flame wars. However, some screwup on my computer replaced Garamond with some sort of comic sans bullshit, so I'm back to Verdana. Which isn't nearly as awesome.
posted by klangklangston at 6:06 AM on August 18, 2006

I've been using Century Gothic for so long that all the other suggestions were tough annoying to read.
posted by Iamtherealme at 6:07 AM on August 18, 2006

Ooh, Georgia IS nice.
posted by klangklangston at 6:09 AM on August 18, 2006

I have become a big fan of Candara

Excellent for screen use, a little sophisticated, much much nicer than goddamned Verdana.
posted by briank at 6:45 AM on August 18, 2006

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posted by fnord at 7:50 AM on August 18, 2006

Trebuchet MS. Georgia's too busy.
posted by deborah at 9:09 AM on August 18, 2006

Times New Roman, with the plain style sheet. Mainly as at work camouflage.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:31 AM on August 18, 2006

Corbel. Say whatever you want about Microsoft but their web fonts are quite nice.

(Looks best under OSX anti-aliasing, but then again what font doesn't?)
posted by darukaru at 9:40 AM on August 18, 2006

Mmm, I like Garamond too. I went 3 whole years of college writing all my papers in Garamond, even technical memos...
posted by muddgirl at 10:38 AM on August 18, 2006

BitStream
posted by prostyle at 10:39 AM on August 18, 2006

Thanks for all the input, folks. I didn't realize that it would turn into a 62-comment extravaganza! Right now I'm using Georgia again, after a slight detour a couple of months ago with Trebuchet.
posted by rossination at 10:55 AM on August 18, 2006

Dumb question-- how do you change fonts?
posted by empath at 11:54 AM on August 18, 2006

Empath: it's in your profile settings.
posted by prostyle at 12:04 PM on August 18, 2006

empath: On your preferences page


OP: I use Lucida Grande, or else Verdana is a very nice screen font as well. Georgina (by the same designer) is nice as well. On Linux Bitstream Vera Sans is a nice Verdana-like font.

When I'm in a suicidal mood I choose Comic Sans MS. Luckily for me that isn't very often.
posted by lodev at 2:05 PM on August 18, 2006

"Cleartype increases legibility significantly on my 19inch CRT at home. Sub-pixel hoohah notwithstanding."

Really? I thought it was only manipulating the sub-pixels and so I expected it to not help or possibly even hurt on CRTs. I wonder why it is helping?
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:09 PM on August 18, 2006

I found out about Georgia on Mefi (in the green I think). Now I use it for everything.

Georgia, rocks.
posted by oddman at 9:55 PM on August 18, 2006

Oh, *thanks*, maryh. My keyboard really *needed* a wachup.

Anyone got an oxygen bottle?
posted by baylink at 10:12 PM on August 18, 2006

Or, y'know, "washup".
posted by baylink at 10:12 PM on August 18, 2006

I use Palatino Linotype, which is serifed like Georgia, but easier on my eyes.
posted by toxic at 12:16 AM on August 19, 2006