I like comic sans. For the masses it provides good readability without looking too formal and stuffy. YMMV, natch.
All typographic creativity gets copied because it looks good. Copy it often enough, it becomes a cliche. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t still look good.
This deserves a thread?
The “foot” and “inch” marks are called prime and double prime respectively. 
[QUOTE=Pranky]
Magnetout: Yes that’s what I’m referring to. It’s very prevalent on signs for restaurants and such… a place called Nancy’s using a vertical foot mark where an apostrophe should be used.
In an email or board post I don’t care. When it’s someone’s business sign that I’d assume they’d have pride in (and presumably paid a bad graphic designer to execute), it irritates me.
[/QUOTE]
It isn’t going away soon on the web. Smart quotes aren’t rendered in plain text - they just show the blank box that is the default character for ‘I dunno what the hell this is, let’s put a placeholder’. I have spent so much time removing all those characters from MS Word documents so I can supply plain text to people who refuse to move to a system where they can use Unicode.
I spend my days being a liaison between designers and geeks and doing designs -> webpages. It’s kinda interesting having a foot in both worlds!
I am amused to see the poster Colophon in a thread about typography.
Once upon a time, all clichés were typographical.
[QUOTE=Larry Mudd]
Once upon a time, all clichés were typographical.
[/QUOTE]
Now THAT post is full of win. [/irritating lolcat cliche]
Thank goodness they stopped, but ESPN2 used to place capital letters randomly within names of teams or players. Look, mIchiGan sTatE is playing nOrtHwesteRn. Ugh!
[QUOTE=Askance]
Too much Papyrus, in boardgames.
Papyrus, The Font That Jesus Used, in the movies.
[/QUOTE]
Times Roman and Helvetica everygoddamwhere in any movie with a setting anywhere after 1900.
I seem to have gotten used to it, but I used to be irritated when dots replaced dashes in phone numbers and slashes in dates.
[QUOTE=Eben]
I like comic sans. For the masses it provides good readability without looking too formal and stuffy. YMMV, natch.
[/QUOTE]
Well, ain’t that precious. Here’s what everyone else thinks.
Well, to be honest, I think the hatred for Comic Sans is way out of proportion with the problem. It’s a font. Maybe not a particularly pretty one (although it looks kinda OK in comics).
If Comic Sans didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent it - people would just be abusing and over-using some other ‘friendly’ font instead.
Everyone knows that Trajan is the movie font.
Remember when every damn flavor of junk food or pop was Xtreme! ?
.
[QUOTE=Darth Sensitive]
Everyone knows that Trajan is the movie font.
[/QUOTE]
Given the font of “Goodie Bag” this man has no right to be talking.
[QUOTE=williamweigand]
I seem to have gotten used to it, but I used to be irritated when dots replaced dashes in phone numbers and slashes in dates.
[/QUOTE]
I haven’t gotten used to it. Let’s show everyone how very, very techie we are by using 1.800.look.at.me. I understand it’s to save space on a cell phone screen when texting. Big whoop.
[QUOTE=Sigmagirl]
I haven’t gotten used to it. Let’s show everyone how very, very techie we are by using 1.800.look.at.me. I understand it’s to save space on a cell phone screen when texting. Big whoop.
[/QUOTE]
Dots instead of dashes for phone numbers have been in design for a long time before cell phones came about. Personally, I like it. It looks nicer (to me, obviously).
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena]
Awesome post. I am ashamed to say I never got that there is a double message in those ads until just now.
[/QUOTE]
There aren’t. At least, not usually.
I always find myself reading the highlighted words alone, trying to figure out WHY they highlighted them. I mean, they must be some sneaky, albeit cliche, way of adding another layer of meaning to the advertisement, right? Or else, what’s the point?
Alas, no. Afterwards, I always feel like that kid on A Christmas Story, who found out his secret decoder ring was just another way to advertise to kids. Although here it just turns out there was nothing to decode after all.
What a waste.
[QUOTE=Darth Sensitive]
Everyone knows that Trajan is the movie font.
[/QUOTE]
I can understand getting worked up if a typeface is used in settings in which it is unsuitable. But if it’s just popular? Who cares? If a typeface is used appropriately, most people shouldn’t notice the typeface.
[QUOTE=Colophon]
Another thing that’s kind of annoying - and, it seems,
a favourite technique of advertising copywriters - is the
use of blocks of text consisting of a stream of copy about
the product, with (and here’s the clever bit) certainseemingly
random words picked out and highlighted in order to
cunningly spell out another, more concise, sentence.
Yes it was clever at first, but not any more. Please, for the love of God,
make it stop. Now.
[/QUOTE]
Best ever example of something like that: