# Is it time to leave serifs behind? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 6, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634 "2004-04-06T22:13:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/1 "2004-04-06T22:13:56Z")
Have we advanced enough as a society that we can use sans serif fonts exclusively? Or does the Roman Empire still cast a shadow after all these centuries? When I look at the pros and cons, I can’t think of a reason why we should still be using serif fonts. Pros: Few people actually write that way. There will be fewer pixels using up foreground color. Rome will finally be defeated. Our font folder will have room for more fonts. Cons: Can’t really think of any. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/2 "2004-04-06T22:23:50Z")
It’s for the children. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/3 "2004-04-06T22:24:12Z")
They’ve been unnecessary for five hundred years, yet we’ve kept them because people are used to them. Simplification has always been a reason to change, but has never won through, because we are creatures of habit and are more comfortable reading printed material in serif fonts. Sans serif fonts are more commonly used on computers because screen resolutions are well below what we expect of any half-decent paper printing. Rough calculations, my half-decent monitor is offering about 100 pixels per inch on its highest setting, yet my bottom-shelf laser printer offers 600dpi. Commercial book printing works on many thousands dpi. When screen resolutions replicate that, then serif fonts will look very nice indeed. An extra observation - although websites mostly use sans serif fonts, PDFs (by definition designed for printing) are mostly created with serifs. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/4 "2004-04-06T22:27:21Z")
Serif fonts are easier to read. And prettier. You’ll have to pry my Palatino Linotype out of my cold dead fingers. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/5 "2004-04-06T22:45:01Z")
I or l vs I or l it’s enough to make one Ill ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/6 "2004-04-06T22:47:34Z")
Most comprehension studies of the serif v san-serif issue support **StarvingButStrong** ’s contention that serif is easier to read. Of course, most of those studies are based on printed text on paper. As **GorillaMan** indicates, most screen resolutions give serif fonts less of a comprehension advantage, or even a disadvantage. They are not, however, “unnecessary”. Most professional technical writers I know, for instance, prefer serif fonts for body text and san-serif fonts for titles. This distinction becomes one of the comprehension tools that you use when reading the manual (or whatever). ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/7 "2004-04-07T00:38:53Z")
Sans serif fonts are generally very much less aesthetically pleasing than serif fonts, which trumps all the other reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Freiheit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e8c25b/32.png) [@Freiheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freiheit)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/8 "2004-04-07T01:54:14Z")
I can’t believe myself, but reading that OP got me just about as worked up and upset as I’ve ever been on this message board. Serif for print. Sans for screen. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/9 "2004-04-07T02:29:29Z")
Could someone explain just what the heck is a serif is? I’m assuming it’s not a literary version of Omar Sharif. ---
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/10 "2004-04-07T02:43:49Z")
**asterion** : [Read this.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif) ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/11 "2004-04-07T02:47:03Z")
It’s the caps and the feet on your letters By default, SDMB uses a san serif font, so you can see in letters like the lower case L that the letters are straight without embellishments. Compare the letters above to this text, which should be appearing in the serif font Times New Roman. Note the stroke at the top and bottom of the lowercase L. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/12 "2004-04-07T02:47:35Z")
Serifs are the small lines at the ends of stokes in letters. Times for instances is a typeface with serifs. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/13 "2004-04-07T02:47:59Z")
[Director Stanley Kubrick thought a lot about such things.](http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1177734,00.html) > [@](#): > > It is not a remarkable note except for one thing. The typeface Tony used to print it is exactly the same typeface Kubrick used for the posters and title sequences of Eyes Wide Shut and 2001. “It’s Futura Extra Bold,” explains Tony. “It was Stanley’s favourite typeface. It’s sans serif. He liked Helvetica and Univers, too. Clean and elegant.” ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/14 "2004-04-07T03:49:36Z")
I tend to favor the shaded sans-serif (Oracle, for instance), which gives the crispness of a sans serif font with the depth of a serif. But Palatino Linotype is pretty nice. And Deepdene. ---
**Author:** ![Freiheit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e8c25b/32.png) [@Freiheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freiheit)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/15 "2004-04-07T03:52:31Z")
lowbrow uncultured unrefined crude uncouth crass low Holy ROMAN Empire. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/16 "2004-04-07T04:29:27Z")
Serif fonts are also essential for monospace text, which has plenty of uses (easy columnar formatting, for instance). Of course, monospace can also be considered less visually appealing in circumstances that don’t call for it. There’s room for both, and will be for the forseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/17 "2004-04-07T04:33:10Z")
Palatino: Pretty! When I was a young proofreader working late at night I would secretly switch the font on the newspaper’s poetry column from Times to Palatino because it looked better. There! I’ve said it! God, I feel so much better to have that out in the open after 22 years! ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/18 "2004-04-07T13:23:40Z")
Serifs are necessary for monospace? I don’t think so. [http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/bitstream/prima-sans-monospace/](http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/bitstream/prima-sans-monospace/) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/19 "2004-04-07T13:33:44Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > Have we advanced enough as a society that we can use sans serif fonts exclusively? Or does the Roman Empire still cast a shadow after all these centuries? When I look at the pros and cons, I can’t think of a reason why we should still be using serif fonts. > > Pros: > > Few people actually write that way. > > There will be fewer pixels using up foreground color. > > Rome will finally be defeated. > > Our font folder will have room for more fonts. > > Cons: > > Can’t really think of any. The only reason I can think of to KEEP serif fonts is that they are easier to read. Infinitely easier to read when you’re reading a lot of text, as in a _book_, for instance. Studies prove it (no cite…sorry). ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634/20 "2004-04-07T14:12:52Z")
AII l can say is, if someone caIIs me Ino again, l’II snap. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-leave-serifs-behind/238634.md?page=2)