Serif Vs sans serif – it’s the eternal question. Being an old school print typographer with hours and hours and hours of typesetting under my belt I know fonts pretty intimately. The kind of knowledge you only acquire when you have spent years printing out blocks of text and reviewing them for their minute differences under different treatment. How a glossy magazine can cause serifs with a thick/thin stroke to break up and become unreadable, how an uncoated paper can absorb too much ink and heavier fonts can bleed out becoming illegible. So with all this information moving online was a new experience in readability and what works what doesn’t. Needless to say I am still obsessed with fonts and cannot bear bad typography – which is everywhere now thanks to wordpress!
So I have to say that strictly speaking this infographic does not have a leg to stand on with its initial comment of serif fonts are easier to read in print and sans serif is easier to read online – as it’s simply not true and only someone with very little typography experience could say that.
Type snobbery aside, I love the concept but ironically the typography use is terrible. Its a shame this is a classic example of something that first glance looks like the best thing ever but fails miserably under examination. At least it has encouraged me to create a better type guide infographic (if I ever get time). so Urban Fonts.com – please do your homework next time and employ someone who actually knows something about fonts and typography.