11–20 of 49 posts
The typographer Matthew Butterick was so bothered by the use of Verdana in “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” that he wrote a letter to Brad Bird, the film’s director. PDF: http://mbtype.com/pdf/bird-verdana.pdf
Did he ever get a reply?
One thing I noticed: People are starting to forget what old computer screens looked like. It could be because there's a shortage of actual, functional CRT monitors. But these days when an old computer is called for you are likely to see perfectly smooth, green text in Consolas or similar composited onto a prop screen, rather than actual glowing pixels. It's jarring and saddening, and it's happened in two films that I…
Being devil's advocate here for a moment... Surely ensuring that the text shown on screen is easily readable for the audience (especially so for exposition props such as newspapers), outweighs the need to be temporally correct with the typeface?
One thing I noticed: People are starting to forget what old computer screens looked like. It could be because there's a shortage of actual, functional CRT monitors. But these days when an old computer is called for you are likely to see perfectly smooth, green text in Consolas or similar composited onto a prop screen, rather than actual glowing pixels. It's jarring and saddening, and it's happened in two films that I…
There may be several practical reasons for doing that though. CRT screens create weird effects on camera, and maintaining a bunch of functional ageing hardware is going to get a lot harder as time goes on for complex electronics that have been superseded by modern technology.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did he ever get a reply?
Yes, Mr. Bird was a bit defensive...here's a summary w/ links to the exchange on Twitter: http://www.candlerblog.com/2012/01/25/brad-bird-responds-to-...
I can understand it more when it's a tool or something you use frequently like the font on a phone, but it's literally a few minutes out of one movie.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There may be several practical reasons for doing that though. CRT screens create weird effects on camera, and maintaining a bunch of functional ageing hardware is going to get a lot harder as time goes on for complex electronics that have been superseded by modern technology.
They could simulate it: http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/
I really admire the author for being able to identify so many types with just a few letterforms. I've had a passing interest in types so I can identify basic Microsoft/Apple free fonts as well as a few common Adobe ones like Minion Pro and Myriad Pro. I think I can identify perhaps at most thirty different typefaces. Anyone wants to chime in on how you are able to be familiar with so many more?
Firstly, is it serif, sans-serif, handwritten, monospaced etc? This will narrow it down, but distinguishing between similar fonts, such as Arial/Helvetica, Avenir/Futura, Garamond/Caslon etc. requires looking at individual characters.
Lots of characters don't change much between typefaces and can be hard to identify at small sizes, but others can change a lot so they're the ones to look out for - including the lowercase g, uppercase Q and ampersand &.
Is the g double storey or single storey? Open Sans and Noto are identical except for the g (Open Sans is double storey).
What's the tail on the Q like? Does it cross the circle, is it curved or straight? Open Sans and Droid Sans are identical except that the tail of the Q is curved in Droid Sans and straight in Open Sans. (Also the uppercase I has bars in Droid Sans).
Arial and Helvetica can be told apart by looking at the lowercase t. Arial's t terminal is at and angle whereas Helvetica's is horizontal. Also the terminals of the uppercase S are at an angle whereas Helvetica's is horizontal.