acheron.org

acheron.org
acheron.org






 



  news archive
acheron.org > news

  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

top of page