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I really like Impact it is more attractive than Arial or Helvetica yet maintains a high degree of legibility. It also looks good stretched either vertically or horizontally giving me the ability to achieve a variation of style on a single layout without having to use multiple fonts.
Steve
-------------------- Steve Aycock Designs 3489 Oswald St. Johns Island, SC zaor@warpdriveonline.com Posts: 124 | From: Charleston, SC | Registered: Feb 2003
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I prefer fonts made for our industry by sign people. Letterhead fonts and signfonts.com. Any script by these is preferable to anything else. In general type that is available I like some variations of Goudy, Century Schoolbook, Optima, Eurostyle and Impact.
-------------------- Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Posts: 2785 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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Gee, so many fonts, so little time. I have about 150 in my Font Navigator favorites. In no peticular order... Antique olive - Strong, clean font eurostyle - modern looking handel gothic - different caslon - a classic Eras - different compacta - bold lithograph - interesting optima - another classic dom casual - fun aachen, americana - I like 'em Bailey Script - I like the way my name looks I also like the look of a lot of the house industries and letterhead fonts but have had no use yet. There's probably about 1/2 dozen scripts I left off the list because my favorites aren't sorted on this computer.
Havin' fun,
Checkers
-------------------- a.k.a. Brian Born www.CheckersCustom.com Harrisburg, Pa Work Smart, Play Hard Posts: 3775 | From: Harrisburg, Pa. U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 1998
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I'm a big fan of large but underused font families. That way you can vary weights with true small caps and italics and end up with a highly upscale look.
Two favorites are:
Utopia (Family) - Adobe Bodega Sans (Family) - The Font Bureau
-------------------- Fred Weiss Allied Computer Graphics, Inc. 4620 Lake Worth Road Lake Worth, FL 33463 561 649-6300 allcompu@allcompu.com Posts: 427 | From: Lake Worth, Florida | Registered: Feb 2003
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Serpentine Bold...a real workhorse letter style Decorated...quick drop shadows and 2 color lettering on a plotter IncisedNDltBold...the fatty of fonts Handle Gothic.....neat and clean VAGRounded...easy to weed URWWoodTypeD...can you say "firetrucks" Tiffany Heavy...Nice thick and thin style
Least favorites...
Brush Script done in all caps! EEEEEEWEWWWWW! Courier...typewriter jobs only Machine...poor man's race car numbers. Pipeline...bent paper clips.
Rapid
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
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I go through moods with type. Recently I've been using a lot of:
Frutiger (lots of weights and styles). Similar to Univers or Futura as a work-horse, but just different enough to keep it interesting.
Caslon and Century Schoolbook (esp. condensed)
for casual stuff I'm going to paint, I make a pattern with: Sign Painters Slant (by House Industries) or Dom Bold
I haven't used "Impact" yet -- its a system font, so i didn't even know that I had it. I just looked it up because of this message thread, and now i might try it. It looks like Alternate Gothic, but bolder, and with a taller x-height.
-------------------- :: Scooter Marriner :: :: Coyote Signs :: :: Oakland, CA :: :: still a beginner :: :: Posts: 1356 | From: Oakland (and San Francisco) | Registered: Mar 2001
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I've got a lot of favorites. What I'd really like to do is to have nothing BUT favorites on my HD...eventually will take the time to do just that. Having alot of fonts are necessary for reproducing people's logos, etc....but when I think of it, I just very rarely do that anymore.
A few years ago, I went thru my fonts...all of them...and catagorized them into scripts, spur serif, ruled serif, sans serif, etc folders. It's been real good for me. Alot of times, I'm not looking for a particular script, but for a script that goes with another font nicely. I like having all of them together, instead of the whole enchilada in alphabetical order with no other rhyme or reason. It took me half a day to sort them this way, but like I said, it was several years ago and the sweat has all dried and I still have the finished labor to enjoy.
I've got thousands of fonts, but believe that I could narrow it down to 150-200 GOOD fonts and keep myself happy and busy for 20 years, give or take. (and I'll betcha there's more than a handfull of great designers on this site that'll tell you they could do the same with ten!!!)
[ August 09, 2003, 03:31 PM: Message edited by: Don Coplen ]
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Gosh, That's like asking me my favorite food or color. With all three, it's the combination. Fink fonts are like burgers and fries eaten in a red hot rod. Ya know what I mean.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3819 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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Like Scooter said, it depends on my mood. For a good, non-serif font, I use Swiss 721 alot-then Bold it. Before bolding it, it is thinner than Arial, but once bolded its thicker than Arial and thinner than Arial Bold. From a distance its not to thin to read and not to thick that it looks like a blob.
I am still looking for that good all round script font. A customer sent me a sample of something that he wanted. I called and told him tha tI wanted that script font that he used-could he please email it to me. He sent it to me and it wasn't the same. He swore it was so I didn't want to agrue with him. I'll wait until he comes in and show him the difference.
-------------------- Laura Butler Vision Graphics & Sign 4479 Welch Rd Attica, Mi 48412 Posts: 2855 | From: Attica, Mi, USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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I've always loved Americana, though it's beginning to become over-used in my area. I've been using Poster Bodoni a lot lately for LONG signage (read, facia boards).
The industry specific typfaces that have been mentioned earlier are all fun too.
-------------------- Jon Androsky Posts: 438 | From: Williamsport, PA | Registered: Mar 2002
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I use all the letterhead fonts quite a bit, along with the signdna fonts, and the scripts from signfonts.com. All of these are geared towards the sign industry and work for about any job. Outside of that I use Compacta, BigBand, Futura,Americana,Tiffany Bold,Microgramma, and a few others on a regular basis. Sometimes we can get stuck in a rut using our most favorite fonts on signs. I always try to keep from doing that.
-------------------- Maker of fine signs and other creative stuff. Located at 109 N. Cumberland ave. Harlan, Ky. 40831 606-837-0242 Posts: 4172 | From: Ages-Brookside, Ky. Up the Holler... | Registered: Jul 1999
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Ed, that's CocaCola Classic bold. No, actually, I saw that font somewhere...maybe on one of those web based font sites (ya know the one...it's got 20 versions of the Star Trek lettering)
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hehehe, just kidding folks!
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