Let's talk about fonts-

Factual Questions
1

This is a multi-level question:

  1. A number of people in the know have advised me to keep the font folder in the control panels as low as possible. What exactly is a good number to keep that at? Mine, now, is at 24, including italics etc…

  2. Why do other programs seem to have their own list of fonts that can’t easily be changed or removed? For example, IE 5.5 only gives me a choice of five fonts. Of these five, only one is listed in the font folder in settings. Adding to my irritation, I can’t seem to import those fonts into IE.

  3. Why the Hell do I have Arabic font support added as an extra folder on my system? Is it safe to remove? I really don’t want or need to see things in Arabic.

  4. Finally, without loading up my system with meaningless fonts I never would use, what font is worth checking out for shear reading ease? I don’t want fancy or comic sans serif, I’d like something that looks professional and is easy on the eyes.

  5. Anything I’ve missed that’s important, add here.

FWIW- Pent III, 450, running win 98 128 megs of ram.

As always, especially in GQ, thanks in advance for advice and suggestions.

2

Hi Chris!

  1. Having a large number of fonts consumes a lot of your system’s resources, not to mention disk space. The more fonts you have in your Fonts folder, the longer it takes for certain applications to load, especially word processing and graphics applications.

How many you “should” have depends on your needs. Most people won’t need more than the bare basics-- the fonts your system came with, and the ones you just happen to like. If you’re a nutty typeface collector like I am, though, you’ll never have enough. :slight_smile: At the moment, I have over 75 fonts and font suitcases in my Fonts folder. In all, I have around 200 fonts in there. That’s just what’s currently installed; I have three CDs and a SuperDisk full of reinforcements.

The maximum number of fonts you can have in your Fonts folder is 128. Uh, I have a Mac… I’m not sure if Windows has such a limit, and if it does, what the limit is. If you have more fonts than the limit and you don’t want to delete any of them, you can partially solve this problem by grouping fonts into suitcases, sorted by family name. You can stuff upwards of 16,000 fonts into a suitcase, although a couple hundred is considered living dangerously.

  1. I dunno. Heh heh. As for those hidden fonts (the ones that don’t appear in your Fonts folder), I’ve read about a way to extract a font for use in other applications, but it involves dissecting the application the font is used in. And the instructions were Mac-centered. But I’m sure it can be done in Windows.

  2. Good question. Does it suck up a lot of space?

  3. It’s reading ease you want, it’s reading ease you’ll get.

The best typefaces for reading ease are serif typefaces-- Times, Times New Roman, and New York are examples. The serifs are those little lines and bars on the letters; they make the transition from letter to letter easier for your eyeballs.

Sans serif typefaces lack those lines, and therefore aren’t as easy to read. Helvetica and Geneva are examples of sans serif faces. (There are exceptions, though: Optima is an example of a what’s called a semisans face. Semisans faces are sans serif faces with serif elements; they’re quite readable.)

Decorative typefaces, which basically covers every other typeface out there, are also out of the question, for the same reason. By definition, they’re better suited for attention-grabbing banners and short lines of text.

Since I don’t think anyone really wants to pay $60+ for the fonts I’ve named, that leaves freeware options. I know of a few freeware fonts sites on the Net, but they usually aren’t as well organized as they should be. You may have to do some exploring. Try here first:

http://www.pcfonts.com

I hope the blinking banners and logos don’t blind or kill you. Look for something plain and simple, and you can’t go wrong.

3

Audicans-

You’re the best. Thanks.

I’d rather not have the number of fonts you have. I like to run my system lean and mean. And, if I remember right, Mac’s handle fonts differently than Window’s macines. Can’t say that I know for sure.

I’ll check on your site tomorrow, I’m running on empty right now, and get back to you.

4

FWIW, I currently have 868 fonts on my box, all under the fonts dir (no sub-dirs), all available, all the time.

Win 98 / P2 233 / 32MB (obviously not cutting edge)

It does slow down some apps, but mostly when they are loading.

For what I use them for - flyers, ads, web crap, it’s well worth the small slowdown.

So, I wouldn’t worry too much about checking out a few extra ones.

[ob slag on B. Gates]
Anyway, if you really wanted to run your system lean and mean, you’d be using Linux, not Windoze.
[/ob slag]

5

:slight_smile: Anytime, Chris.

Actually, let me retract that URL. I just remembered how freaking irritating that whole site is. Don’t click it! If the banner ads don’t overwhelm you, the number of windows that pop up will. Ugh.

Fortunately, I remembered that Microsoft (of all places) has Times New Roman available for free download, here. Times New Roman is the best text typeface on the planet. But I’ll keep my eyes open for others for ya.

6

What was said about san serif fonts only applies to printed matter. For on screen text, definately use a san serif font. Left out were the slab serif fonts, such as courier. Courier is a fixed width font, meaning that each character is the same width. This is useful for printing computer programs, where you want to preserve the formatting.

BTW, I have 560 or so fonts loaded on my computer, which is a meager P200 w/ 96 megs RAM, running NT 4.0. I’ve just gotten used to the slowness.

7

I still think serif fonts are best for text in general, but, yeah, sans serif fonts can be used on-screen. It just depends on the point size the text is displayed in. As long as the point size is at least 10pt, you can get away with using a sans serif face. Otherwise, it’ll bust your eyeballs. (Of course, the point size thing applies to serif fonts too, but I think moreso for sans serif fonts.)

The amount of text is a factor, too. If there are paragraphs upon paragraphs of text, then a sans serif face isn’t a good idea, regardless of the point size. My browser displays these posts in 10pt Helvetica (a sans serif face), and while I have no trouble reading shorter posts, the longer ones are hell. I don’t have the same difficulty when, thanks to that coding quirk, the posts are displayed in a serif face.

If you go to the MS page, you’ll find three good slab-serif, monospaced fonts there: Andale Mono, the aforementioned Courier, and Courier New. They’re all worth downloading, IMHO.

BTW, the fonts on that page were chosen for their on-screen readability. For more on-screen typefaces, check out Adobe’s Web Type bundle. Pricey, but there are some decent fonts in there.