I work at a consulting engineering firm and write a lot of reports that are read by the public. I have an opportunity to recommend a different font for all of our written documents and am looking for something more modern/fresh than Times New Roman. Also open to recommendations for purpose specific communities about typography/fonts.

  • @[email protected]OP
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    711 months ago

    It feels like low effort to use the default Office font when there are so many other options, but in my sans serif font tests Calibri ended up looking the best so far. I really didn’t want to like it! Curious where you think serif fonts belong? I don’t know shit about fonts/graphic design…

    • @[email protected]
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      511 months ago

      I write mostly for web, so I don’t use serif a lot. I think it’s still fine for use with headings.

      If your reports are destined for print, it still belongs, imo.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        211 months ago

        What counts as print these days though? When I first started working, we’d get literal boxes shipped to us with 1,000+ page documents inside. Now it’s a cloud link that opens with a PDF reader. Does that still count as print? Genuinely curious, because I see conflicting advice depending on if its print or not.

        • @[email protected]
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          211 months ago

          Anything literally printed on paper. If you’re in PDFs and you know your audience is going to be reading it on a small screen, I’d say stay away from the serif fonts. Especially since you mentioned elsewhere that you’re concerned about document length; you can get away with smaller letter tracking size on sans.

    • Ludwig van Beethoven
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      311 months ago

      I really like me a good serif. Computer (Latin) Modern is very satisfying. Also, according to some research, it’s up there with the Helveticas and the Arials for readability. Note that 12-point is where serifs flourish (figuratively).

    • @[email protected]
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      311 months ago

      Calibri is bad for technical documents because you can’t easily tell the difference between I and l.

      Whatever sans serif you use, choose one that makes the difference legible, like Trebuchet or Bierstadt.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        11 months ago

        gotcha. Serif fonts seem more readable to me in every setting, but they also look stuffy. ¯\(ツ)