Lol, I remember seeing the film "Helvetica" [1] in which one of the commenters remarked how anachronistic fonts would ruin a movie for him.
[1] www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817
Typecasting: The Use and Misuse of Period Typography in Movies (2001)
41–49 of 49 posts
Re: Typecasting: The Use and Misuse of Period Typography in Movies (2001)
#42I abandoned TLC's Halt and Catch Fire when the IBM 3033 started up with a black on white CGA font on a 3278. And, of course, booting into PC-DOS. I made https://github.com/rbanffy/3270font for a reason.
So a time period error in one scene put you off of the whole show? I mean, there are a number of errors in any kind of period show, there's just too much to keep track of on a tv budget. It's a pretty good show, and worth watching. I'd recommend skipping that episode if it bothers you and giving it a try.
Hyperbole. I already had abandoned it, but gave a shot because of the 3033.
But come on... A 370 booting DOS?! After a painstaking physical reconstruction?
To be fair, I already noticed their use of MDA fonts for the Zenith machines.
Re: Typecasting: The Use and Misuse of Period Typography in Movies (2001)
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
He wrote an article 16 years ago about a subject related to his career, and it is still drawing attention to his site and his work 16 years later. Seems like a good investment to write that article to me.
So you're basically saying that "how many people are attracted to your idea" is a good measure for value of that idea? If only all those people in history thought like that, we'd still be living in caves.
That depends what the idea is. If the idea is an idea for an article for a blog that exists to showcase your business or interests, then yes, absolutely, in that case how many people are attracted to the article and learn about what you do and your skills should be a major measure of success.
> If only all those people in history thought like that, we'd still be living in caves.
If "all those people" through history had measured the impact of what they did and done more of what worked and less of what didn't, instead of writing things off as useless based on belief, we'd be far further ahead.
In this case, what he did worked - his site specifically exists to showcase his professional skills and his work [1], and here we are discussing an article he invested time in writing 16 years ago
Re: Typecasting: The Use and Misuse of Period Typography in Movies (2001)
#44Ah, so this article looks at anachronistic use of typography in movies set in the past. In the other direction is: https://typesetinthefuture.com/
I just read an article from that site (Blade Runner) which prompted this post!
Re: Typecasting: The Use and Misuse of Period Typography in Movies (2001)
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
So a time period error in one scene put you off of the whole show? I mean, there are a number of errors in any kind of period show, there's just too much to keep track of on a tv budget. It's a pretty good show, and worth watching. I'd recommend skipping that episode if it bothers you and giving it a try.
Hyperbole. I already had abandoned it, but gave a shot because of the 3033. But come on... A 370 booting DOS?! After a painstaking physical reconstruction? To be fair, I already noticed their use of MDA fonts for the Zenith machines.
I guess I'm just happy with close enough, and maybe I'd feel different if it were tech from my own coming of age.
Re: Typecasting: The Use and Misuse of Period Typography in Movies (2001)
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hyperbole. I already had abandoned it, but gave a shot because of the 3033. But come on... A 370 booting DOS?! After a painstaking physical reconstruction? To be fair, I already noticed their use of MDA fonts for the Zenith machines.
I guess I'm just happy with close enough, and maybe I'd feel different if it were tech from my own coming of age.
That's true. Being able to point out the flaws from your own memory substantially detracts from the enjoyment.
Re: Typecasting: The Use and Misuse of Period Typography in Movies (2001)
#47Ah, so this article looks at anachronistic use of typography in movies set in the past. In the other direction is: https://typesetinthefuture.com/
I just read an article from that site (Blade Runner) which prompted this post!
Oh excellent. What led you from that article to this post? I don't see a direct link between the two.
Re: Typecasting: The Use and Misuse of Period Typography in Movies (2001)
#48I 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?
Like with most things it's just a matter of practice and knowing what to look out for. Same as with birds or leaves or whatever. 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 a…
Yes Arial and Helvetica are a special case that I learned to tell apart early on since both are very common. I just use Arial and Helvetica to set the same letters, but in both different colors and set the transparency to 30% or thereabouts. Then I position the letters such that their difference is quite easy to tell.
Thanks for the answer. I guess I just need more practice.