6 ms·

I never understood the fascination with Helvetica. It looks nice, sure, but there has to be more to it than that.

rkuykendall-com 13y ago
Watch the documentary. Helvetica is like air, or water. It's the font when you choose don't want to choose a font, because It says absolutely nothing.
- 80 13y ago
  In theory. In reality it's got a ton of cultural baggage.
- bluthru 13y ago
  That's an opinion, not fact. I'd say it's closer to vanilla: So versatile and distinct that it was elevated to ubiquity. Your average person would have a hard time telling you when helvetica was created or when vanilla ice cream was created. That's an achievement.
  - ChristianBundy 13y ago
    That's an opinion, not fact.
    - bluthru 13y ago
      Never claimed it to be one.
- midas007 13y ago
  Ubiquity is itself a message. Each font has a personality that effects the impression of a work. So there's no escaping a work sending no message at all, except by not meeting deadlines. :)
- iratedev 13y ago
  > because It says absolutely nothing. Much like your post
serf 13y ago
I never really understood the fascination with typography beyond a readability standard to be honest, but that's why i'm not a designer.
- panacea 13y ago
  Do you code in comic sans?
  - rprospero 13y ago
    I don't code in Comic Sans. I code in whatever the default font is for my editor. As an experiment, I just tried shifting the editor's font to Comic Sans and writing some code. Did really feel any different to me. Obviously it didn't change any unit tests, but I didn't feel any subjective differences, either. Oddly enough, since I didn't write down what the default font was, I'll probably be coding in Comic Sans for the foreseeable future. If this becomes an issue, I guess that I'll switch fonts, but, at the moment, I still don't understand what the big deal is. For the record, I'm not trying to be snarky. I was really hoping that switching my editor to comic sans would enlighten me on the difference between using a "good" font and a "bad" font, but I still don't see it.
    - panacea 13y ago
      So you're happy to code in a non-monospaced font. I can't help but think you're being wilfully ignorant... or just being a contrarian. Either way, good luck.
    - rbilgil 13y ago
      You said you only care about readability. But readability is one of the only reasons we code in "monospaced" fonts, because although they don't look as nice, it's very difficult to confuse capital I's with l's and 0's with O's. Also surely you get the sense of informalness that comes from Comic Sans? Do you at least understand why it looks silly on something like a "DANGER, HIGH VOLTAGE" sign
      - 13y ago

Watch the documentary. Helvetica is like air, or water. It's the font when you choose don't want to choose a font, because It says absolutely nothing.

80 13y ago
In theory. In reality it's got a ton of cultural baggage.
bluthru 13y ago
That's an opinion, not fact. I'd say it's closer to vanilla: So versatile and distinct that it was elevated to ubiquity. Your average person would have a hard time telling you when helvetica was created or when vanilla ice cream was created. That's an achievement.
- ChristianBundy 13y ago
  That's an opinion, not fact.
  - bluthru 13y ago
    Never claimed it to be one.
midas007 13y ago
Ubiquity is itself a message. Each font has a personality that effects the impression of a work. So there's no escaping a work sending no message at all, except by not meeting deadlines. :)
iratedev 13y ago
> because It says absolutely nothing. Much like your post

serf 13y ago

I never really understood the fascination with typography beyond a readability standard to be honest, but that's why i'm not a designer.

panacea 13y ago
Do you code in comic sans?
- rprospero 13y ago
  I don't code in Comic Sans. I code in whatever the default font is for my editor. As an experiment, I just tried shifting the editor's font to Comic Sans and writing some code. Did really feel any different to me. Obviously it didn't change any unit tests, but I didn't feel any subjective differences, either. Oddly enough, since I didn't write down what the default font was, I'll probably be coding in Comic Sans for the foreseeable future. If this becomes an issue, I guess that I'll switch fonts, but, at the moment, I still don't understand what the big deal is. For the record, I'm not trying to be snarky. I was really hoping that switching my editor to comic sans would enlighten me on the difference between using a "good" font and a "bad" font, but I still don't see it.
  - panacea 13y ago
    So you're happy to code in a non-monospaced font. I can't help but think you're being wilfully ignorant... or just being a contrarian. Either way, good luck.
  - rbilgil 13y ago
    You said you only care about readability. But readability is one of the only reasons we code in "monospaced" fonts, because although they don't look as nice, it's very difficult to confuse capital I's with l's and 0's with O's. Also surely you get the sense of informalness that comes from Comic Sans? Do you at least understand why it looks silly on something like a "DANGER, HIGH VOLTAGE" sign
    - 13y ago