|
Readable
Or Unreadable?
by Mighty Mouse (Cia)
as appeared in acrylic weekly issue nine.
Readable or unreadable, that is the question. And a damn good
question at that, too. Is there really a point to making fonts that
only the artist themself can read? Some say yes, some say no. Me
on the otherhand, I say that it's totally dependent on the purpose
of the font. If it's a font just for the sake of art, by all means,
go wack-happy on it, funk it up, do what you please. But, conversly
if it were, for example, a board add, one might want to be able
to read the font. Here's a quick dialog example:
<person_1> Hey, check out this ansi by __________.
<person_2> That's pretty cool. Hey let's call that
board that the ansi was for. What was the board name again?
<person_1> Ummmmm... D....Do.....uhhhh, i dunno, i
can't fucking read the font.
Well, there goes another potential caller down the drain, oh well.
Now, you're probably thinking "You asswipe, what do you think
sauce is for?!" Well, no everyone uses sauce and also, sauce
isn't used on boards. NOW, i bet you're thinking "You stupid
dumbass, why not just put the name of the board in regular text
somewhere in the ansi?!" That, I propose to be a good solution,
but, once again, not everyone will choose to do that.
In the end, it's all up to the artist. They choose how the font
looks, what text is there, what colors, etc, etc. They may choose
to do "art" or if they feel like it.. a regular readable font. I'm
not saying that unreadable fonts suck. That's hardly the case. I'm
saying that one should choose wisely before rushing into a font.
Ask yourself "Whose gonna be reading this anyhow?" If the
answer is no one, then you should find something better to do with
your time :). If it's ppl on a bbs, most of the time, you would
want something that ppl will want to remember (it may end up being
"hey, let's call that board with the fucked up font that noone
can read", or "let's call _______"). If the answer just
simply happens to be doodleboys/chicks, then do what you please
wit your font. But, to be effective, things have to be font properly.
- Mighty Mouse
|