Friday 5 for January 13, 2012: Type

1. What’s a decorative font you really like?

I've used Snell Roundhand on stuff like wedding invitations.
I don't really have a favorite but that is the script font I use for that rare thing which looks good in script.

2. MS Word uses Times New Roman as the default plain font; Apple Pages uses Helvetica. Is there a plain font you like better?

I like Helvetica. For some reason my copy of Word 2008 on the Mac defaults to Calibri. I think it is the same on the office PC with Word 7 or whatever it is that is on Windows 7.

As an alternate I also like Franklin Gothic and to fill space up, Bookman.

3. In words per minute, how fast do you type? (if you Google “check your typing speed” or something like that, you’ll find many online options for testing yourself)

If I did not go back and correct mistakes as I typed perhaps a dismal 55 words per minute... of course that is looking at text someone else first wrote. I think I type a little faster if I am just writing from the top of my head without a text to look at.

4. Who in your life is just your type, but for some reason not romantically compatible with you?

There is no one in my life except the various Macintosh computers and cameras I own. They don't qualify as people, so there you go.

5. What’s your blood type?

B+

By the way I come from the old school of computerized typesetting when it was a highly specialized skill utilizing expensive, proprietary systems such as the Compugraphic or the Itek Quadritek. I spent several years typesetting for our school, a small printing firm and an ad agency before I and everyone else moved on to the Macintosh platform.

Today any schmuck can set type on their Windows PC or Macintosh computer. If they don't know much about type they usually end up with shoddy, crappy looking type.

The video shown above is a glass font wafer that was used on the old Itek Quadritek machine of which I have a page for on the my website.

Friday 5 questions from Scrivener's Friday 5 site.