Fun bonus fact: if you watch the Helvetica doc, you'll likely develop the superpower of how to tell the difference between Helvetica and Arial anywhere either of them appears -- i.e. everywhere (lesson learned from experience 😆)
Nice piece. I suspect Papyrus will come back, eventually. It has its place (though I admit right now it makes me wince hard). I remember when I started design work in the early 90s, typefaces like Lydian looked dated and terrible to my eyes. Now I love it. Even Cooper Black now feels like it's got a Victorian retro charm... whereas a lot of Neville Brody-style type (all the rage back then) looks stilted now. I used Futura a ton in the 90s, then got really bored of it, but your piece suddenly makes me think huh, that was a cool, coherent font. Maybe it's time for it to come back... it's fascinating how type works like that. The zeitgeist in letter shapes.
These things do go in cycles! I am similarly charmed by Cooper Black.
Even if it does come back, I’m not sure I’ll ever come around to Papyrus. Though I think the Avatar subtitles might be the closest to acceptable an application can be—both the story and font deal with broad, archetypical references to nature and foreignness.
I'll always have residual affection for Papyrus from when I first started seeing it, in the kind of stores in the Pacific Northwest that sold crystals CDs of whale music. I remember thinking: Oh, that is the *perfect* font for this... ;-)
Fun bonus fact: if you watch the Helvetica doc, you'll likely develop the superpower of how to tell the difference between Helvetica and Arial anywhere either of them appears -- i.e. everywhere (lesson learned from experience 😆)
Haha, this is true.
Nice piece. I suspect Papyrus will come back, eventually. It has its place (though I admit right now it makes me wince hard). I remember when I started design work in the early 90s, typefaces like Lydian looked dated and terrible to my eyes. Now I love it. Even Cooper Black now feels like it's got a Victorian retro charm... whereas a lot of Neville Brody-style type (all the rage back then) looks stilted now. I used Futura a ton in the 90s, then got really bored of it, but your piece suddenly makes me think huh, that was a cool, coherent font. Maybe it's time for it to come back... it's fascinating how type works like that. The zeitgeist in letter shapes.
These things do go in cycles! I am similarly charmed by Cooper Black.
Even if it does come back, I’m not sure I’ll ever come around to Papyrus. Though I think the Avatar subtitles might be the closest to acceptable an application can be—both the story and font deal with broad, archetypical references to nature and foreignness.
I'll always have residual affection for Papyrus from when I first started seeing it, in the kind of stores in the Pacific Northwest that sold crystals CDs of whale music. I remember thinking: Oh, that is the *perfect* font for this... ;-)
Ohmigosh you just ruined Gill Sans for me (thankful).
This was so enjoyable and enlightening, I learnt a few fascinating things here.
Papyrus just looks so awful, why anyone would want to use it is beyond me.
Helvetica seems sarcastic somehow, and that's why I love it and use it constantly.
Information I didn’t think I needed. I loved the documentary on helvetica. Thank you Roy
You’re most welcome! 🫡
Comic vs Papyrus.
You have it the wrong way round.
Except for possibly playschools and really not even then comic shouldn’t see the light of day!
Papyrus has its uses and to damn it due to NW US misuse is harsh indeed!
Liked your article.
Thanks.
This is incorrect, sorry, I don’t make the rules 🙂
😁. Nice try. Like comic sans you’ve failed!
https://ineedabookcover.com/book-covers/a-guide-for-murdered-children/
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing. Any books you recommend that talk more about fonts/typefaces?
Thanks!
Sure! This should get you started:
https://bookshop.org/lists/fonts
You rock! Thank you so much this is fantastic!
If you haven’t read it, I think you’ll really enjoy Never Use Futura by Doug Thomas. It’s wonderful!
http://www.neverusefutura.com/