From the course: Learning Type Design

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Utility

Utility

From the course: Learning Type Design

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Utility

- A typeface can be useful in at least two ways. It can convey a specific impression or feeling, like the elegance conveyed by Snell Roundhand, or the informality and naivety conveyed by Comic Sans. And the typeface can be useful because it serves a wide variety of purposes. For example, Times Roman can be used at 10 point for long passages of text. It can be used at eight point, because of its large ex-hype and its easily differentiated forms. And it can be used in displaced settings for sober headlines thanks to its refined shapes. The fact that Times Roman looks so ordinary allows it to be used with many different kinds of text. From business reports, to poetry, to contracts, to newspapers, to fiction, to signage, to business cards, Times Roman is not a typeface to convey a feeling, unless that feeling is no-nonsense. But it's difficult to argue its utility. The hallmarks of utility are flexibility, economy, and plainness. A typeface is flexible if it can be used in a wide range of…

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